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Showing Original Post only (View all)The Unemployable 50 Something Will Be Permanent Part Of The Labor Landscape Now [View all]
The American worker might as well get used to being unemployed and unemployable by the time they are even 45 these days. Forget 55. Corporate American considers workers old at 42 which is the actuarial age where an employee becomes a burden. It is not like the "good old days when an employer valued older employees and valued longevity, knowledge and seniority. Times have changed and employers' attitudes have changed big time. The new economy is not only bad for older workers it is also terrible for newer workers as well.
You can thank the Reagan revolution for the new reality for workers. Just like government being the problem, Reagan fathered an era where live employees are the problem and the drain on corporate America. All you have to do is look at the labor landscape today and how it is arranged against workers and how that landscape is being reshaped to make matters much worse.
It won't be too long the future that there will be no unions and no labor laws to protect workers if conservatives and big business have their way. Workers are now expected to pay for ALL their own training and shop around for a job selling their skills. The employer only cares how much you can do for them with not much more guarantee than a paycheck if that. You will be lucky if the job is even full time and pays ANY benefits the direction things are going.
Welcome to the new JURASSIC JOB MARKET. The employer is now the predator and workers are the prey. I have watched workers work environment deteriorate for over 32 years while business has slowly added more demands and more hoops to go through on workers. Drug tests, FBI like dossiers, credit checks, police checks etc etc etc. You would think that a person were applying to the CIA.
Getting old, getting sick, getting hurt, doing the wrong thing outside of work, wrong politics, etc will get you "the chop". And you cannot do a thing about it since almost all work now is "work at will." And getting old is now the worse thing you can do. Because there is no career path anymore and no loyalty.
Workers have been tricked into being antiunion, antilabor and antigovernment. They have been convinced go against the very things that can create a more decent work environment. Without collective bargaining and sensible and enforced labor laws, the worker is pretty much doomed.
By giving up the old notions of job security, decent pay, seniority, long term employment, the employment social contract for a more "on your own" free market workers have just about guaranteed that they are just fodder.