Repeat after me: "Do you want fries with that?"
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.
Not a healthy “jobs” indicator so much as an economically unhealthy indicator that fewer older people are unable to comfortably retire.
Lots of my fellow docs plan on working a long time since their retirement plans went poof.
Many of the over 50 crowd are also working to support their unemployed kids, who have moved back with mom and pop.
As a 60 year old, I’m making more than ever. Enjoying work more than ever. And my incentive to retire is?
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.
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.
This is why we need to kill all the old people with health care rationing.
Retiring early would be suicidal right now.
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.
I was laid off two years ago thanks to Hope and Change. I am 52 now. I refuse to keep supporting the socialist direction we are speeding in. Our farm is paid for and my wife still has a good job. I pick up odd jobs off the books to pay for gas and beer.
Workers 55 and older have something most young workers don’t: Experience and work ethic.
Times are tough and employers don’t want to burden themselves with the costs of training inexperienced workers. They hire the best ones with experience they can and that is the over 55 crowd.
This is what I would tell anybody graduating from college....You must begin to prepare now to work for yourself by the age of 40. That means saving money, gaining relevant experience, and networking up the wazoo from Day One. By the time you reach 40, you should be ready financially and experience-wise to make the leap.