NY Times: Longer Unemployment for Those 45 and Older

[edhopper]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/us/13age.html?_r=1&hp

Workers ages 45 and over form a disproportionate share of the hard-luck recession category, the long-term unemployed — those who have been out of work for six months or longer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[Triana]

1. ageism reigns - always does. n/t

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. I hear crickets chirping.....

Is age discrimination justified?

Should we throw away those who are over 45 and in need of employment?

Why do we tolerate and largely ignore age based discrimination?

Why do we seem to think that those who are 45 or older are not deserving of opportunities for self supporting work?

Dying is the only way to avoid aging and possibly facing this form of discrimination.

We should all be outraged.

[enlightenment]

4. Youth does not believe it will age. We (45+) didn't.

The 'post boomer' generation has already decided that we (the 45+) are responsible for every bad thing that has ever happened to them. I'm sure they'd love to ship us out to the nearest ice floe and be done with us. Except who would watch their kids? Put them in a position to hire, though, and they'll find every excuse in the book not to hire us. Employers our own age don't want to hire us because we are 'over-qualified' 'will retire too soon' 'will want retirement' 'expect too much' 'want more money' . . .

I hate it. I'm not only over 45, I'm female. Double whammy. I REALLY feel for the over 45s with even more 'we would never discriminate based on xxxx' factors that employers discriminate on every single day.

As to why it is ignored? I'd imagine the excuse du jour is that there are more important things to worry about.



Some of the under-45s on DU are absolutely vile on this topic. I suppose I was, too (I don't recall being a shyte about it, but I suppose I was).

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. .

I'm over 45, female, single, overeducated with a responsible work history and unemployed. I also have both visual and hearing impairments that do limit some of my physical capabilities but do not require any kind of special accomodation. I'm fucked.

I guess I've missed the vile commentary. I put all the bigots on my ignore list.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. Those 'under 45s' will be in the same boat soon enough. Saw a 20/20

where they used cosmetics to age a young person then compared their job hunting experience... yep, age discrimination. The ADVANCED age they made the young person appear = 37.

[Nay]

5. I don't mind being thrown away; just send my retirement check to

my home regularly every month, and I'll happily leave the workplace. Work sucks for most people. What is really maddening is that they don't want you after you're 45, but you're expected to work until you're 66 - 70 to get SS! Nice trick!

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. I have determined

that I have absolutely no obligation to be a "productive" member of "society" - whatever the hell that is.

It is for me to determine what is a productive use of my life and whose interests I serve.

My only loyalties are to myself and my family. Everything else is discretionary.

I will not voluntarily sacrifice to advance the interests of those who undermine my own interests.

There is a dinstnction between having a job and having an income. I try not to confuse the two. However, those who exclude me from the workplace would do well to consider that they are also removing my contributions to the depleting Social Security pool.

[HughMoran]

22. I have to wonder. I'm over that age.

It seems like my old company, and the new ones I've been getting involved with don't want to pay me what I was earning. I've lowered my expectations, but I feel like companies don't want to pay for highly experienced people like me. Sucks.

[customerserviceguy]

3. You bet ageism is still alive and well

The reason we finally have a chance at universal health care with a single payer system is that older baby boomer workers like me all of a sudden are feeling pretty damned vulnerable right now. Even if we have a job, we know we had better well keep it, a potential employer looks at us as potential liabilities to an experience-rated health insurance group policy.

It would be nice to have them look at us for our experience and dedication instead.

[Kat45]

7. Just what I need to read. 54 and unemployed here.

I worked at the same company for 16 years until my whole department's jobs got outsourced around 1999-2000. Since that time, jobs have been of short duration with much more time between them. I absolutely think age-discrimination has been involved in my experience, and now that the economy is so much worse I'm quite worried about being able to get another job.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. People of color experience job discrimination their whole lives, Don't know if

I mind that those who practiced the discrimination age into a disadvantaged class also. :shrug:

[enlightenment]

11. Pardon me?

The people who are currently aging into the discrimination are the same people who fought to end racial discrimination. Unless you are assuming that all boomers are racists fucks on top of being old.

Thanks, 'liberal'.



edited to remove an errant apostrophe

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. You are implying

that at a younger age I discriminated against people of color.

Welcome to my ignore list.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. WTF? Discrimination of any kind is wrong. Period.

And you are making some mighty damned pernicious assumptions about everybody over age 45 -- many of whom worked for civil rights back in the '60s before we got old and useless and unemployable. There is no justification for your statement. None.

And did you consider the possibility that some of those old people might also be people of color?

[kiva]

14. My first job searches took place at a time when

gender discrimination was rampant, but I don't consider that a reason to be OK with ageism.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. Same here.

When I first entered the workforce it was still OK for newspapers to publish want ads that had separate columns for Help Wanted-Women and Help Wanted-Men. And the shit jobs were mostly in the women's column, and if you were a woman you were wasting your time if you tried applying for any of the good jobs in the men's column. So therefore I guess it would be OK for me to discriminate against any older man now?

[kiva]

19. Only the ones who used to talk about the 'girls' who

worked for them. :hi:

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. Mine too but facts are facts. Unemployment is about twice the overall rate for some groups.

Listening to some people gripe about unemployment makes me want to pull out my
little violin. :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: The only time unemployment becomes an issue is when it rises for groups that historically had an advantage. Maybe spreading the pain around will give folks some empathy.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5nuJ22QSB43rUZWOHrmalHCexeAD973UPKG2

Since the recession began in December 2007, Latino unemployment has risen 4.7 percentage points, to 10.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Black unemployment has risen 4.5 points, to 13.4 percent. White unemployment has risen 2.9 points, to 7.3 percent.

[omega minimo]

25. Maybe you ought quit poking your little violin bow in the empathy that already exists.

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

16. So because I am over 45 and unemployed it's just karma?

WTF? I have hired, employed, and supervised many people of all sorts of races, religions, and sexual orientation. I can show you a 4 page letter one of my employees wrote to me when I was being transferred to another department. She was young, single, black and a mother of 2. She said I was the first supervisor she ever had who believed in her. And before you go off on a "ooh, she has a black friend" bullshit run, I should tell you that this was not the only time someone thanked me for being the kind of boss that I am/was.

So, who are these people you don't mind being discriminated against?

[TahitiNut]

18. You seem to have a stunningly superficial and simplistic basis for your ageist bigotry.

What else is new? :shrug:

[HughMoran]

23. I know you don't really mean it like that

I hear what you're saying, but you do realize that someone like me who's white and over 45 had no hiring bias whatsoever. Statements like yours don't go over well here or anywhere for that matter.

[mitchum]

15. It appears that the Boomer...ang has come home

[madrchsod]

20. well duh....the times just figured this out..

no wonder newspapers are losing readership.

[Missy Vixen]

24. I just rubbed my SIL's nose in this

She came over for a family dinner two weeks ago -- my husband's 45th birthday, as a matter of fact -- and proclaimed to everyone at the table that there is more discrimination against women in their thirties in the job market than there is for men over 40. I told her she was wrong. She continued to argue; I just sent her the article. So nice of her to ignore the fact her brother's been out of work since November.

I can't wait till I get tomorrow's flame mail from her. Did I mention that she's a Republican?

[KillCapitalism]

26. It's just as bad if you're under 30.

If you're under 30 no one will hire you due to lack of experience. My friends and I know this because we have experienced it in our younger years.