Older Workers and Unemployment

Losing a job is always terrible. For workers over 50, it’s worse, By Lydia DePillis, March 30, 2015, Washington Post: “At first blush, it wouldn’t appear that older workers have it all that bad in today’s economy. They got their start long before the economy’s Troubles really began seven years ago (or even 17 years ago). They had time to sock away money while times were still good.  The unemployment rate among workers over 55 is 4.1 percent, compared with 5.7 percent for the population overall, and labor force participation among older workers has been rising since the early 1990s. That’s arguably a better position to be in than that of a young person whose earnings potential has been forever damaged by starting out in the Great Recession.  But the headline statistics hide a harsher reality: older workers who do lose a job spend longer periods out of work, and if they do find another job, it tends to pay less than the one they left. A new survey from the AARP sheds a lot of light on how older people react to sudden unemployment, what their new work looks like, and why…”