ShareThisAs the U.S. economy wrestles with an ongoing recession, thousands of older workers are among those who find themselves looking for jobs. Whether older workers are at a disadvantage depends on whom you ask.
Barbara Monty, director of the Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee Office on Aging in Tennessee, said there's no question in her mind that older people who have been laid off, or pushed into retirement before they were ready, have a harder time getting a job.
"Age discrimination is out there, and people don't talk about it," said Monty. "They know they can't talk about it, but it's very real. And frequently the older people are the first ones to be laid off, or forced into retirement because they've been there a long time and their salaries are higher."
Monty's agency offers workshops for older job-seekers and helps people recognize strengths, which can be highlighted during a job interview.
"They can talk about the fact that ... they're going to be there and they're going to be there on time," Monty said. "You don't have to worry about my getting pregnant, you don't have to worry about my having been out on a date the night before. I'm settled and I'm mature and I've got a work ethic."
There is some evidence that older workers are better off than their counterparts at the other end of the spectrum, though. In a recent article, Bureau of Labor Statistics economist James Marschall Borbely wrote that, in 2008, young workers -- those ages 16 to 19 -- were affected more than those 55 and older by poor labor-market conditions.
Borbely reported that the labor-force participation rate for people age 55 and older increased by 1 percent in 2008, to 39.8 percent, and that the participation rate for older adults has been on the rise since 1995.
"Several factors may have contributed to this rise," he wrote, "including a gradual increase in the usual retirement age for receiving Social Security benefits, a decline in the number of individuals covered by defined-benefit plans and the decreased availability of employer-provided retiree health benefits."
The same report found that the unemployment rate among workers ages 25 to 54 increased by 2 percent from fourth-quarter 2007 to fourth-quarter 2008. Among workers age 55 and older, the rate increased by 1.7 percent.
Sandra Rockholt of Sweetwater, Tenn., has years of accounting experience and the willingness to stay until a job is finished. But she has been unemployed since last June and thinks that her age -- she'll be 61 on April 21 -- may have something to do with it.
.A few weeks back, Rockholt submitted a resume to a new business started by a man who needed an employee in accounts receivable.
"He asked me if I was about ready to retire," she recalled. "I said, 'No, I can't retire. Retirement is not in my vocabulary.' "
(Contact Josh Flory of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at XX(at)xxx.com.)
