Sure, raise retirement age! Who cares that unemployment for older rose 331% in the last decade!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/aarp-unemployment-for-old_n_487250.html

AARP: Unemployment for Older Americans Surged 331 Percent Over the Last Decade
Arthur Delaney

First Posted: 03- 5-10 10:18 AM | Updated: 03- 5-10 11:47 AM
Unemployment for Americans 55 and older surged 331 percent over the past decade, according to a new analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute.

"The data clearly shows that older workers have faced a devastating rise in unemployment, with far-reaching implications not only for their employment status but also for their health and retirement security," said AARP spokeswoman Mary Liz Burns. Burns added that unemployment puts a particularly tough squeeze on middle-aged folks -- who often have to provide for kids moving back home after college and elderly parents.

According to AARP, from January 2000 through December 2009, the total number of unemployed individuals 55 and older rose from 490,000 to 2,114,000. The number of unemployed 65 and up rose from 143,000 to 479,000. And the average duration of unemployment for people 55 and up increased 85.6 percent from 18.7 weeks to 34.7 weeks. For people older than 64, the duration went up almost a third, from 24.8 weeks to 32.9 weeks.

http://minnesotaindependent.com/60314/age-discrimination-plagues-the-long-term-unemployed
Age Discrimination Plagues the Unemployed
'Too young not to work but too old to work'
By Annie Lowrey 6/17/10 12:11 PM

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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.

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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.”

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/56008
Catfood, Recession, Unemployment and Healthcare
by: Synoia Monday June 21, 2010 12:10 pm

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Health Care, Raising Medicare Eligibility age to 70

Here’s the current and projected Kaiser Permanente Premiums for over 65, $50 copay (2010 are actual).

1/2010 $16650/year
6/2010 $20000/year (25% increase)
1/2011 $24000/year (10% increase for age, 10% for medical inflation)
1/2012 $28800/year (10% increase for age, 10% for medical inflation)
1/2013 $34560/year (10% increase for age, 10% for medical inflation)
1/2014 $41472/year (10% increase for age, 10% for medical inflation)
1/2015 $50764/year (10% increase for age, 10% for medical inflation)

Seniors may be able to work 6 to 12 months per year to pay for medical insurance, eating cat food, and maybe get medical insurance.

Great Legacy Obama. All this to save the medical industry from us, then to save the rich from repaying the money paid them because of our payments into the social security trust fund, relieving then of paying taxes on their total earnings, and means testing social security.

Thanks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/us/13age.html
Longer Unemployment for Those 45 and Older

By MICHAEL LUO
Published: April 12, 2009

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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.

On average, laid-off workers in this age group were out of work 22.2 weeks in 2008, compared with 16.2 weeks for younger workers. Even when they finally land jobs, they typically experience a much steeper drop in earnings than their younger counterparts.

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But once older workers lose their jobs, Dr. Munnell said, “then it’s horrible.” They have a much harder time finding work again than younger job-seekers do, and statistics appear to show that it is harder for them in this recession than in previous ones. During downturns in 1982 and 2001, workers ages 45 and over were unemployed an average of 19 weeks and just under 17 weeks, respectively.

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Older workers must also battle stereotypes about their energy and adaptability, as well as the reality that their health care costs are higher.

You know, you rarely see mentioned what I see as a major factor in age discrimination - the fact that older workers will hurt the group underwriting for health benefits and cause rates to rise. Group plan rates are calculated on prior claims experience for the group. This is what I see as the most direct cause of age discrimination in employment - people see grey hair and think:"High blood pressure, angiograms, heart bypasses, arthritis, etc."

The higher unemployment of the age 50+ population can be linked directly to the fact that we did not decouple health insurance from employment AS WE SHOULD HAVE. Not only did we keep the for-profits in the picture, we strengthened the indentured to your company for health benefits bondage.

At any rate, any Politician or TeaBag deficit cutter who suggests raising the retirement age in light of the retirement picture for older Americans has their heads up their ass and locked and should be called out on it. Plus, I don't want to hear anymore more BS about "retraining" the older workers. It doesn't matter how much retraining occurs if the employers simply don't want this segment of the population.Not to mention that a lot of the people being rejected for employment have skills far beyond the actual position being applied for.