Senior Citizens are being forced out of retirement and back to work by the worst US economic recession in 70 years, leaving them fighting for jobs against younger people or risk homelessness, according to a private study.  The study released on September 20 by Experience Works, indicated that out of a group of 2000, over 55 people, 46% needed to find work to keep their homes.  The study also indicated that for almost a year they have been looking for work.

Experience Works is the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of community service, training and employment opportunities for older workers. The study was conducted in the past two months and covered 30 states and Puerto Rico.

“These people are at the age where they understandably thought their job-searching years were behind them,” said Cynthia Metzler, president and CEO of Experience Works.  “But here they are, many in their 60s, 70s and beyond, desperate to find work so they can keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.”

According to the study, many of the participants had no intention of working past their 60th birthday, but had to change plans after being laid off or following the death of a spouse. Over a third of the participants had retired.  Also, 90% of respondents 76 years and older planned to continue working for the next five years.

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Huge medical bills due to a personal illness or that of a spouse were also reasons for coming out of retirement, the survey found. The longest and deepest economic slump since the 1930s is making finding a job for the low-income elderly workers a difficult challenge.

According to Labor Department data, there were 2 million unemployed workers over the age of 55 in August, an increase of 69% from the same period last year. Between August 2008 and August this year, the number of unemployed workers 75 years and older increased by 33%.  The unemployment rate among workers 55 years and older was 6.7% in August after shooting to a record 7.1% in July. The national unemployment rate was at 9.7% in August, the highest in 26 years.

The Experience Works study found that 46% of the elderly jobseekers were sometimes forced to choose between paying rent, buying food or medication. Almost three-quarters believed their age made it harder to compete for jobs with younger workers.

“This study underscores the need to create policies that remove barriers to employment for older workers and provide additional programs and services specifically aimed at helping older people re-enter the work force or remain working,” said Metzler.

For many older Americans, retirement is not a viable option; many are postponing retirement, while others are going back into the work force, driven by personal or financial reasons.  The trend is evident in the number of older workers — the number of people 55 and above in the work force rose to 22.7 million in May, up from 22 million in 2003 and 20.7 million the year before that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The increase in older workers coincides with a shift in employers’ attitudes — while there has long been an aversion in corporate America to hiring seniors, who were deemed expensive or difficult to train, that view is changing somewhat at a time when the government is forecasting a significant labor shortage by the end of the decade.

The AARP estimates that 1-10 Americans age 65 and older lives below the poverty level.  In part, this explains the need to work because of the need of money.  This does not mean that most seniors are poor, they may have limited savings, expensive medications or loss of a spouse that maybe the reason for a lack of funds.

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My Take: I will never understand why people cannot understand that Social Security does not pay enough!  It makes no difference whether it is retirement, disability or widow’s pension; it is never enough to truly live on especially if you have health issues.  They take out $150 a month for Medicare and then Medicare does not pay for everything.

I also do not understand why companies will not hire an older person.  If they are qualified for the position and they have the right amount of experience, it seems that they would be of benefit to the company.  There may be a problem in training because an older person is set in their ways, but that could also highlight problems in the company.  That means the company would improve because of them.

And the reason that Social Security does not provide enough is simply because the cost of living keeps rising and the benefits are only about 75% of what you were earning the last three months of work.  Then those same benefits do not increase as much as they should put the cost of living.  That increase is only about .02% or about $20 a month on average.  It depends on how much you get per month.

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