Out of a job and out of luck at 54

CNNMoney ^ | 5/21/2008 | Tami Luhby

[Mr. Jeeves]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Too young to retire, too old to get a new job. That's how many older workers are feeling these days.

While it's not easy to land a job in this weak economy, older workers are in a particularly tough spot. Corporate downsizings are hitting this group hard, with many companies looking to shed the higher-paid positions these employees often occupy. Even worse, older job seekers are discovering the search is even rougher as many employers shy away from hiring those closer to retirement than to the start of their careers.

The downsizings come at a bad time for older workers. Not only can't they afford to retire, but many were counting on beefing up their 401(k) accounts in the years before they exit the labor force. Compounding the problem is the slumping stock market, which has left them with a deflated 401(k) cushion to draw on while looking for a new post.

"There are tons of folks out there who cannot afford to live once they've faced that involuntary layoff," said Renee Ward, founder of Seniors4Hire.org, an online community for older workers and companies looking to hire them. "And it takes them a little longer to find a suitable position."

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

May I suggest to these workers - Panama. Move to Panama - it is a thriving, booming country with a third of the costs here in the U.S.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Well, companies making people “bend with the times” is what is going to usher in all kinds of socialism.

On that point, FRiend, you may be correct. I hope not.

[HwyChile]

The solution is very easy. We just need to scrap our free market system that has worked for years and made us the richest country in the world and go to a centrally planned economy. The government would ensure that everyone is employed and gets what is fair. I think it is a brilliant idea. I just cannot figure out why no country has every tried it before.

[BARLF]

My husband retired at age 55. Died in 2006 afer seven years of illness. Not one dime did we need or expect from the government to pay our bills, health insurance,his prescription meds or any other costs we encountered.

There are exceptions of course but most people plan,save and pay their own way.

Media doesn't dig for truth,they dig for whiners with tales of woe is me. Blame the Republicans.

[Non-Sequitur]

Her first stop should be an attorney. Class action age discrimination lawsuits make good money.

[Non-Sequitur]

May I suggest to these workers - Panama. Move to Panama - it is a thriving, booming country with a third of the costs here in the U.S.

Just doing jobs Panimanians won't do, huh?

[Lazamataz]

I call BS.

Older workers generally don’t do drugs. The ones that did died or went to prison.

Older workers don’t have family responsibilities so much.

Older workers aren’t trying to get in every hot chick’s / guy’s pants.

Older workers have the ability to stealthily creep up behind a younger worker and garrot them without staining the carpet.

[Boiling point]

Been there. I was layed off about five years ago. I have severe back trouble and arthritis. When I was young, jobs were very easy to get. In fact, there were times I had three at a time. I was optimistic just after the lay off but got a rude awakening when I found no one wanted to hire middle aged men with health problems. Who would have thunk it? Anyway, All is fine now, I had to take a job with no benefits or insurance, My house was payed off in 2000, and we don’t do debt. Moving was not an option for us as my wife makes good money at her job of thirty years. And we have too deep of roots sunk into our farm.

[DOGEY]

These companies that will hire the fifty something employee are very rare. Health insurance costs are one factor mitigating against hire. This is a real problem for persons between 55-65. Age discrimination statutes don’t help much.

[Huck]

Before you go down that road.....take a look at how much disability costs for a 20-25 year old and then see how much it costs for someone over 40. Companies don’t want to pay the extra costs. It may cost them $1000.00 a year for the younger person and $10,000-$20,000 a year for the older person. That is why the age discrimination laws that don’t work for insurance companies. Now look at companies that have large numbers of employees over 40. If you have over, say, 500 employees over 40 figure out how much a company can save by laying them off. I come up with $5 million in savings.

Which makes my point. Don't count on someone else to take care of you. They won't.

[DonaldC]

“We just need to scrap our free market system that has worked for years and made us the richest country in the world and go to a centrally planned economy.”

Given our debt loads, richest no longer applies and certainly few aspects of our economy have been free market for a long time. hehe I am not sure central planning would have been much worse than the chaos we have now.

[sphinx]

Expect more and more of these stories as November approaches.

More and more? This is CNN. For at least the last six months, it takes a box of tissues just to get through the front page. I don't see how it could get any worse.

[thulldud]

Reminds me of the PJ O'Rourke book title: "Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and A Bad Haircut."

Works for me.

[El Laton Caliente]

We just hired a 68 year old... People are generally worth more than they think, especially if they are flexible enough to think of related businesses that are doing better. I’ve seen guys laid off at 60 and turn into “consultants” and make more in a few years than they had in the rpevious ten...

[McGruff]

No one can afford to pay $20,000+ per year in health care for these people. And it's only going to get worse as the great bubble of Caucasian baby boomers starts moving into retirement circa 2020. At that point, the USA will simply collapse like a deck of cards because of all the demographic dead weight in this country.

What was the necessity of using the word Caucasian? I didn't know all 54 year olds were Caucasian. Since they are dead weight. why don't we just shoot them like horses?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

A very real possibility here is for a corporation to be created whose purpose revolves around older employees, with several unique concepts:

1) Employees may be legally precluded from working on things directly associated with their previous employment. However, they can be offered far more liberal terms for new innovations than are typical. That is, often employers will own all patents and copyrights; in this case, offering a 40/40/20 split of profits would be a huge incentive, especially if the other 20% went for general retirement and health benefits.

2) Other employees might work as subcontractor consultants for other companies legacy systems. For them, the corporation would be more like an investment fund, with a similar 40/40/20 split.

3) The big difference in this type of company is old fashioned loyalty. The company is almost a non-profit, until its “incentivized” employees bring in the bucks for everybody to profit. The employees themselves will motivate each other, and get downright huffy at deadwood or inefficiency.

4) Most employees will just bring in the “meat and potatoes” regular profits to keep everything running smoothly, and a few innovators will bring in the big bucks at irregular intervals. Unlike the typical, the more you bring in, the more you get paid. And team leaders trickle down to their team.

[NucSubs]

Amen buddy.

[HwyChile]

What this article fails to take into account is that the businesses are doing what they have to do to survive as well. If they are laying off people, they are doing it because they have to do it. Businesses have to learn to adapt and so do people. It is a tough old world, but you have to learn to survive and make your own way on your own. There are no guarantees in life other than death and taxes.

[ANGGAPO]

Twenty years ago if you were 40 or over best you learned hamburger flipping. This didn't count for those professional hires with years of experience in a specific field, and several degrees to back it up. Glad I am not shopping for a job now,, or yet.

[HwyChile]

As Ronald Reagan said, government is not the solution, government is the problem. If health care costs are the problem, then the easy answer is don't require companies to provide health care to all the employees (they can provide it to the younger ones if they like and let the older ones get it on their own).

The idea that companies should provide health care to the employees is what caused the health care problem that we have today (again, government is the problem due to the tax code that put forth that policy).