Older Workers Stay Unemployed Much Longer Than Younger Ones, Study Says

While Republicans want to raise the age of eligibility for social security.

I have seen employment applications that ask where & when you went to high school, even grade school. So even if you get a college degree later in life, they can find out your age.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/17/finding-a-job-after-50-study_n_7603590.html

By Ann Brenoff
June 17, 2015

Compared to younger job-seekers, older adults receive fewer job offers, search for work weeks longer and are less likely to find re-employment after losing a job, according to U.S. government data analyzed by Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Psychology and University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. The study was published by the journal Psychological Bulletin.

In a press release, Connie Wangerg, a Carlson School professor of industrial relations, said, "There's very robust evidence that as an individual moves beyond age 50, they experience a large penalty toward how quickly they will find a job."

In reviewing results of the U.S. government's 2014 Displaced Worker Survey, researchers found that someone 50 years or older is likely to be unemployed for 5.8 weeks longer than someone between the ages of 30 and 49, and 10.6 weeks longer than people between the ages of 20 and 29. The study also found that the odds of being re-employed decrease by 2.6 percent for each one-year increase in age.

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The study also found evidence that older workers find jobs that are lower in pay and less personally satisfying compared to their previous jobs. According to U.S. Department of Labor's Chief Economist Heidi Shierholz, workers between the ages of 54 and 65 earned 13.5 percent less in a new job after losing one.

For many older workers, the prolonged and potentially futile job search may prematurely drive them out of the workforce and even further decrease the chance for re-employment later in life, found the study.

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