Age discrimination plagues the long-term unemployed
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 12:11 pm
- 16 Comments
Last week, thousands of Americans who have exhausted their unemployment insurance — the 99ers, named after the maximum number of weeks of state and federal benefits — sent letters and petitions to Washington as part of a futile campaign to convince the Senate to pass a bolstered version of the jobs bill, now stalled and being pared back. There were many common themes in their stories, but one of the more surprising was age.
One woman from Warren County, New Jersey, wrote: “I am (or was) a legal secretary with several years of experience (30+ years). … I have applied to jobs that are more than one-half less than what I was earning. I search for a job each and every day. … Where do people in my age bracket go? Too young not to work but too old to work?”
Such stories of older workers too young for retirement but struggling for months if not years to find jobs have policy experts concerned as the recession drags on and long-term unemployment continues to rise. Experts say that age discrimination is severely compounding the jobs crisis for older workers, although the phenomenon is difficult to quantify or to prove, and remains under-examined by the government. This time, it is not just making it more likely that these workers will be laid off. It is also making it much harder for them to gain new positions.
Last week, a hearing called by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights examined the issue, attempting to determine whether part of the reason older workers have such trouble finding work, on aggregate, is due to employer biases out of their control. The unemployment rate is a comparatively moderate 7.1 percent for workers over the age of 55 — it’s 9.7 percent nationally — as older workers are more likely to retire early or leave the workforce if they lose their jobs. But that hides the troubling reality for those who can’t afford to leave the labor force.
The unemployment rate for over-55s is at the highest level since 1948. Since the recession started, both the number of older people seeking work and the rate of unemployment for over-55s have increased more sharply than for all other demographic groups. And older workers comprise a high share of the long-term unemployed. In May, the average duration of unemployment for older job-seekers climbed to 44.2 weeks, 11 more weeks than the national average. Nearly six in ten older job-seekers have been out of work for more than six months.
There are structural reasons that the unemployment crisis is hitting older Americans so hard. Older workers are more likely to be underwater homeowners, unable to sell their house and move away. They often have highly specific marketable skills, and seek positions more selectively. They also often have skills rendered obsolete by the recession, in outdated trades. But too often, employers illegally presume that older workers will be harder to train, more likely to leave for other positions, less productive, less technologically able or less willing to move — and do not hire them for those reasons.
Laurie McCann, a senior attorney at the AARP Foundation Litigation and expert on age discrimination, explains that the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act requires employers to assess candidates as individuals and not to make assumptions about their abilities or requirements due to their age. “Employers have legitimate concerns about older applicants,” she says. “But the problem is, we find that people aren’t even getting in the door to have an interview or have their resume looked at, because employers assume that older workers aren’t looking for a job at a lower salary or aren’t willing to relocate.”
Dianna Johnston, assistant legal counsel to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, explains that the statistics fail to capture this side of the picture. Speaking before the Commission on Civil Rights, she said, “Most labor-force statistics don’t really tell us much about the labor force. But one does. … Older workers remain unemployed one to three months longer than [younger workers]. And that is partly attributable to discrimination.”
McCann called age discrimination in hiring “the most under-reported form of discrimination” and “prevalent” throughout the recession, as an average of 5 workers compete for every job opening. In an interview, she explained why age discrimination is so hard to quantify: “[It is] the lack of proof. If you’re laid off, you might be in outplacement, and see that everyone who got laid off was older. Or, you might have friends in your office to tell you that a younger person took your job when your employer told you the position was being eliminated. But hiring discrimination is much harder to see, and can be impossible to prove. In most cases, you’re not going to know who was hired. You’re not going to know how they filled the position. There’s just a hunch, or a feeling, that you’re not getting through the door because of your age.”
Incidences of age discrimination in firing are much clearer to see, and have risen along with the recession. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says age discrimination cases have jumped 17 percent since the start of the recession, and climbed 30 percent between 2007 and 2008. But virtually all of those cases involve layoffs, rather than the lack of job offers.
Still, evidence of age bias in hiring is accumulating in academic research and anecdotal reports to the EEOC, Commission on Civil Rights and AARP. In one famed 2005 study, a Texas A&M economist sent out 4,000 job applications for entry-level positions. (The resumes were only women’s.) Older workers were 40 percent less likely to receive a response back. And of the letters sent to Congress last week, a vast majority mentioned age, many coming from older workers who had applied for hundreds of positions, to no avail.
“Who will help the over 50 population find work? I have been out of work, laid off from the military/defense industry and apply to anything and everything I am qualified for, but with no luck,” one wrote. “ I am told I am too qualified and when I respond with, ‘I am willing to take this position, take less money, I will give you my experience at that salary,’ I am still turned away.”
Unfortunately, policy experts fear that age discrimination in hiring, compounded by the recession, is a problem without a solution. Individuals can bring cases against individual companies, but discrimination is virtually impossible to prove, even if it is easy to see as an aggregate phenomenon. Plus, McCann says, explains, the phenomenon is so prevalent that discrimination simply seems like reality. “As a society, we’re willing to tolerate age discrimination, more so than other kinds of discrimination,” she argues. “People sense that, and it gives older job-seekers a sense of futility. Why even bother applying for jobs, or bringing a discrimination case? I won’t win.”
16 Comments
Comment posted June 18, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
This is an example why we need to change the make-up of the US economic structure. The government needs to guarantee every person a livable wage along with health insurance so that when the greedy, crooked Republi-thugs tank our economy, the working person is not left out in the cold. It should not matter if you have a job or do not have a job, you need to survive.
If the government would step in and do this, crime would fall and people could concentrate on helping their fellow man, rather than lining the pockets of crooked CEO’s with profits.
Comment posted June 21, 2010 @ 3:07 pm
Don’t forget about YOUNGER workers, too. It is IMPOSSIBLE for young adults right out of college to compete with these 50+ aged workers.
Annie, do you have any statistics on the unemployment rate for young workers? I’m willing to bet it is the highest out of any age group.
Comment posted June 29, 2010 @ 5:37 pm
Unemployed workers 55+ who have been unemployed for 2 years or more should be able to receive their pensions and social security early. Move up the early retirement age to 55 or extend Unemployment Benefits past 99 weeks.
Comment posted June 29, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
I agree that the early retirement age should be lowered to age 55 in the wake of this depression (sorry — recession). Where are all of the 50+ going to find work. Many of us have lost savings and cannot start our own businesses or afford to go back to school. Couple that with the fact that no company wants us when they ask for identification (yes, illegal but practiced) when hiring. I’m tired of being interviewed by 20 something know it alls. I’ve kept a youthful, hip appearance and am up on the latest technology but my driver’s license doesn’t lie. What will the Obama administration do when our 99 weeks are up — will we have to live on the streets or in our cars ???
Pingback posted July 25, 2010 @ 11:27 am
[...] doesn’t help finding those jobs which are available. Annie Lowrey writing for the Minnesota Independent addresses the problem that nobody takes into consideration with regard to job search advice or [...]
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[...] unemployment rate for workers over the age of 55 is hovering at around 7 percent, which is deceivingly low considering the plight older workers face [...]
Comment posted September 25, 2010 @ 9:28 am
I am sure that so,so many 55 and older people out of work have some sort of savings or/and a spouse to help if one of them are unemployed and for the most part we probably aren’t hearing from those out of work people as much but so, so many people who are 55 and older have teen kids and may not be receiving any child support may be unable to find work due to their age and have run out of UI benefits. If you are for example a divorced mom with a teen and have no income and go to welfare what they will give you is 350.00 per month. How in hell are you supposed to pay rent with that? Yes they are giving you some help but what can you do with that money? You are in the position so many others attest to being in so I think by now we know we don’t just have a few million lazy 55 year olds, this is a growing class of people that are out of work and not of their doing. This same growing class of people are probably experiencing feelings of failure,futility,uselessness and defeat just to name a few.This situation will only get worse, much worse and I agree it is a real conundrum but one that must be addressed ASAP!
Comment posted September 25, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
An insightful article, which affirms what I am experiencing. Unable to find permanent, full-time work for the past several years, I have resorted to on-call “casual labor” work with an entity that hires permanent workers. In order to overcome the “casual labor” hurdle, I need a set number of actual working days to be permanently on-call. I am being pressured in ways that are not common for people half my age. My employer uses a trainer who consistently brings up my age, in references to “as we get older…” etc. What kind of society is this, anyway? I recently filed for early social security, because I have to survive!
Comment posted December 15, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
Heres food for thought….I have been on social security disability now for nearly two years, I am 54 years old . when our vastly knowlegedable and more informed than I government sent me a packet, and told me I was qualified for my disability benifits, in that packet was a letter stating that because I was over the age of 50 (52 at the time) that I would not be “required” to retrain for other possible work I could do, I had the “option” to train if I wanted to but, unlike folks under 50 years of age i was not required to. I found that disturbing, heres why…The government must also realize that hiring discrimination goes on after age 50 or I would not have been informed of a non-requirement to retrain into another job. I find this disheartening. unfortunatly I am disabled to the point of this not being practical for me anyway, but the thought that our gov’t is even admitting there is a problem for folks over 50 bothers me.
Comment posted February 14, 2011 @ 12:46 pm
I have over 24 years as a Transportation Analyst. My company got taken over and I have been out of work 3 years. This was not my fault. I am now 55 years old. What are we supposed to do. I have applied at 700 companies. This is criminal and wrong. This country has become very very ugly. I guess go die.
Jim
224-489-2910
Comment posted March 13, 2011 @ 2:19 pm
There can be absolutely NO DOUBT that internet job sites automatically filter out applications from unemployed applicant’s over fifty. This is unhidden bias. The EEOC needs to start doing their F—ing jobs, or get out of the way for people who will – the long-term unemployed over fifty!
Comment posted May 9, 2011 @ 7:38 am
I have 30 years experience in corporate real estate. I got laid off 2 years ago and can’t find another job despite submitting 100s of applications. I’ve gotten in the door 5 times and made it to the final 2 a couple of times, only to be passed up for the younger candidate. Age discrimination is alive and well. Meanwhile, I do contract work, but so far have spent more in gas and expenses than I’m collecting in commissions. I have always played by the rules. Now my life savings steadily drains while my wife works hard to keep us going as long as possible. I’m feeling bitterness, anger, and frustration while trying to keep a happy face, but there is no choice but to keep pressing forward.
Comment posted May 21, 2011 @ 6:44 pm
Long term unemployment is not a plague on the over fifty crowd, it is an unfair burden being thrust upon them by the affluent and their stooges in congress and corporations. Everyone knows that the over fifty are intelligent and trainable, they just choose to ignore them like they don’t exist. I myself have been unemployed for over 3 years, after pumping hundreds of resumes in blanket fashion all over the US. I have applied for jobs that required just a high school degree to jobs that I was perfectly qualified for. Age discrimination is alive and well, tolerated and accepted as standard practice everywhere. So what is to be done, we must employ ourselves and create our own markets to survive. There are just too many of us in this situation to be helped by programs. We must start helping ourselves by creating new jobs and our own businesses. We need to organize and share insights for creating jobs that have meaning and value for our generation, as well as the displaced youth. What ever happened to taking pride in being American and standing up for what is right.
Comment posted July 27, 2011 @ 7:22 am
They were so lucky to be 99′ers some of us never got anything not a dime.
Comment posted July 27, 2011 @ 9:02 pm
I worked in Information Technology for almost 30 years. Now I’ve been unemployed for about 3 years. I’ve applied for jobs in IT, and outside of IT, for jobs that anyone can do, advertised jobs that say, “no experience required,” but still I can’t land a job. I’m 53. Usually I hear that my resume is impressive, but I have no degree. No kiddin’. I worked 12 hour night shifts for most of that 30 years. I didn’t have time or the income for getting a degree. Now I’m in school, a full time student, and assuming I graduate I’ll be up to my eyeballs in student loans and 10 years from retirement age. And from the research I’ve done, which lead me to this article, my prospects for a job then are just as dismal as they are today. But, wow. I’ll have that degree. Just have to figure out what to do with it.
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