Older Workers and Unemployment

Older workers who lost jobs in recession spend longer time without employment, By Cornelius Frolik, April 18, 2011, Dayton Daily News: “Ann Kingston, 59, has not found a steady job since moving back to the Dayton area in November, and she believes her age has played a role in her unsuccessful job hunt. Kingston said employers seem to view her and other older workers as more expensive, less capable of learning new technologies and unmotivated to work hard. Her experience is not uncommon. Although older workers have a lower unemployment rate than other segments of the population, they remain unemployed longer and their jobless rate rose by a larger percentage during the recession than their younger counterparts, according to a report released this month by the AARP Public Policy Institute. In Ohio last year, the annual
 average rate of unemployment for workers 55 and older was 6.4 percent, up from 3.54 percent in 2007, according to U.S. Census data. On average, 75,000 older workers were unemployed at any given time, an increase of 38,000 from 2007…”