No Jobs? Employment Is At 40-Year High For Those 55 And Up

IBD ^ | 05/04/2012 | By JED GRAHAM, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

[SeekAndFind]

As the jobs crisis wears on, with payrolls still 5 million below their pre-recession peak, the share of age 55-and-older Americans working has recovered to near a 42-year high.

Workers under 55 have borne the brunt of the jobs recession, which may mean that its economic effects — due to long-term unemployment, underemployment and stretched household balance sheets — may linger.

Before the financial crisis, economists worried that labor shortages would develop in some occupations as baby boomers left the workforce.

But that's moved to the back burner since the recession began in December 2007. Job holders 55 and up have risen by 3.9 million — and fallen by 8.1 million among those under 55, Labor Department data show. It's been 50 months and counting since payrolls peaked, a post-war record. Labor releases the April jobs report on Friday morning.

Some of this shift reflects demographics. Thanks to aging baby boomers, the 55-and-older population has grown by just shy of 10 million since the end of 2007. Meanwhile, those age 35-44 have fallen by 2.5 million.

But that only explains part of the puzzle. Older workers are hanging on to jobs longer, in part because of lost housing wealth and smaller 401(k) balances than they had counted on.

Among those 55-and-up, the employment-to-population ratio barely dipped even in the depth of recession and is now higher than at the end of 2007. The ratio among those 25-54 remains about 4 percentage points lower than before the recession started.

For the 65-69 and 70-74 groups, the employed shares are up 1.1 percentage points and 1.6 percentage points, respectively, over the past four years.

[NonValueAdded]

How about the unemployment numbers by age? Boomers may be hanging onto their jobs for dear life but if you are “seasoned” AND unemployed, you are SOL. Then there’s that whole underemployed thingie.

[PapaNew]

Not a healthy “jobs” indicator so much as an economically unhealthy indicator that fewer older people are unable to comfortably retire.

[Kozak]

Lots of my fellow docs plan on working a long time since their retirement plans went poof.

[Huskrrrr]

Many of the over 50 crowd are also working to support their unemployed kids, who have moved back with mom and pop.

[SeekAndFind]

Roosevelt Institute intern Charlie Eisenhood dug up this data on the unemployment rate by age and education from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Here it is in September 2010:



And here it was in December 2007 when the recession started:



Here is the difference between the two, along with the percent increase, so a (100%) is a doubling:



What jumps out for me? College educated 20-24 year olds have the highest percentage increase. This should hit against a structural unemployment story, as college educated people have the ‘freshest’ skills and incredibly high mobility. It’s worth pointing them out in particular because if their careers hit a rough spot hysteresis sets in and they’ll have serious wage losses years down the road.

The other thing that jumps out at me is that everyone 55-64 has more than doubled their unemployment rate. One thing we aren’t talking about enough is that someone who is 60 and has been unemployed for a year isn’t going to find a decent job again. Why don’t we temporarily lower the retirement age, conditional on a bunch of hoops?

Why don’t we do that especially rather than raising the retirement age, as the December debate is likely to be over, when 55-64 year olds have had such a large jump in unemployment?

What jumps out at you when you look at this data?

[khelus]

Repeat after me: "Do you want fries with that?"

[cicero2k]

As a 60 year old, I’m making more than ever. Enjoying work more than ever. And my incentive to retire is?

[Former Fetus]

One thing we aren’t talking about enough is that someone who is 60 and has been unemployed for a year isn’t going to find a decent job again.

That sounds like me! 55 years old, 3 college degrees (BS, MS, PhD) and unemployed for almost 3 years. I can't wait to turn 65!

[NonValueAdded]

What jumps out at you when you look at this data?

That the best numbers fall into the unskilled categories, which tells me the jobs being created are not quality jobs. It also tells me that if you crank in the "underemployed" numbers, the story it would tell would be devastating.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: As a 60 year old, I’m making more than ever. Enjoying work more than ever. And my incentive to retire is?

Just curious, just exactly what do you do for a living? Maybe I’ll tell me school age kids to follow your footsteps...

[RonboTex]

Although I am employed/underemployed now, I can tell you that if you are over 50, unemployed for over six months, even with a graduate degree, getting back in the game is tough.

I can’t tell you how many times I was perfectly qualified for a job, and was told the employer did not want anyone unemployed for over six months, despite experience or education. Plus a few recruiters who did not work directly for the corporation basically alluded the if you were over 50+, forget it.

I think the stats reflect that older crowd is staying put, once they find a gig.

[cuban leaf]

I’m 58 and in IT. Getting work is easy if I contract. It is more difficult if I want to become an employee. That’s ok since the former pays more.

The reason for the difficulty is that companies want experienced people that are not too old. We are out of the “job for life” realm, but if you are over 55 they may get concerned about health care hits, training you in their specifics only to have you die or get too ill to work, etc. But with contracting, the more experience the better. An older guy can come in and do the work, mentor, and everything else until the contract, his health or his life ends, whichever comes first.

[OB1kNOb]

Many of the over 50 crowd are also working to support their unemployed kids, who have moved back with mom and pop.

I fall into that group. So wish my son could find a better paying job.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This is why we need to kill all the old people with health care rationing.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Retiring early would be suicidal right now.

[SeekAndFind]

WAL-MART is the place to go for Seniors:

[equaviator]

Gender discrimination is real. Women are the preferred protected class of US citizen today. At least it seems to be here in SE Michigan. Actually, it’s gender and age discrimination. More and more younger women have made careers of recruiting and hiring more and more younger women to work in Human Resources as recruiters, account managers and those women hire more women to work in as many other industries as they can. It’s a concerted effort to increase their numbers in the total workforce. This is typical of an era of unchecked liberalism. It happened during the Clinton years and its’ happening again right now.

[khelus]

Walmart’s eh?

I have also seen grey haired people who looked like they belonged in an office setting in fast food places and at food store check-outs.

[jennings2004]

Absolutley!