The Graying of the Jobless

As unemployment figures swell older and better educated workers are increasingly finding themselves out of a job. Workers over 55 accounted for 12.8% of the 11.6 million Americans who were unemployed in January, according to the Department of Labor. The number of workers over 55 who were jobless surged 70% from a year earlier.

In addition, the number of people with college degrees who lost their jobs jumped 85% in January from a year earlier. Unemployment is increasingly hitting older and better educated workers as middle managers and professional services firms face layoffs, according to the Associated Press. Earlier in the recession, layoffs were more likely to affect younger and less educated workers in industries such as retailing, manufacturing, and construction.

The number of jobless workers over 55 doubled compared with the recession in 1982. However, the total number of older workers has also doubled over that period of time. Also, about 15% of people with a college degree were unemployed in January, compared with 9.7% back in 1982.

Furthermore, the amount of time it’s taking folks to find a job is increasing. About 22.4% of those who were unemployed last month had been searching for a job for at least 27 weeks, compared with 18.1% in January 2008. Also, 7.8 million people were working part-time because of tough business conditions.

Unemployment figures are expected to worsen throughout 2009, making it likely older, more educated people will continue to lose jobs. Older workers may face an especially tough time finding jobs because they are often make more money. Many of these people will probably have to get retraining to find another full-time job or move to a completely different industry to get back in the workforce. However, completely changing careers may result in some of these workers having to accept less pay.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.