From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/04/brutal-job-search-reality-for-older-americans-out-of-work-for-six-months-or-more/
By PBS Newshour
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Despite the good news in today’s employment report, nearly two million Americans 55 and older are still out of work.
Economics correspondent Paul Solman looks at the continuing struggles of the long-term jobless in their 50s. It’s the latest in an occasional series on older workers and part of his ongoing reporting Making Sen$e of financial news.
JOE CARBONE, President, The WorkPlace: I don’t want you to think for a minute that I’m somebody who doesn’t understand what unemployment is like.
PAUL SOLMAN: Joe Carbone runs the WorkPlace, a job training center in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
JOE CARBONE: I was unemployed once for eight-and-a-half months. I used to drive 20 miles to do a little grocery shopping so I wouldn’t meet anybody who would be able to look at me and ask, “Did you get a job yet?” So, I know what it can do.
PAUL SOLMAN: Given the empathy that Carbone and his staff convey, it’s no surprise that the unemployed flock here for emotional support.
WOMAN: I have been on the Internet daily, all day, eight hours a day. I can’t find anything.
PAUL SOLMAN: These folks have all been unemployed long-term, and as you may have noticed, most are 55 and older. There’s been lots of talk about the improving jobs picture of late, and especially today, when the official unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent, the lowest since 2008.
Our own more inclusive measure of the un- and under-employed is down to 16 percent, the lowest since we started tracking it in 2010. But in Bridgeport and at job fairs around the country, the reality is brutal for the more than four million Americans who remain out of work six months or more.
For those 55 and older, it takes about a year on average to find work, longer than for any other age group.
Continue reading at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/04/brutal-job-search-reality-for-older-americans-out-of-work-for-six-months-or-more/
