Fewer People 55-And-Over Choose To Work. But Why?

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨MasterBlaster@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨workreform@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.investopedia.com/fewer-people-55-and-over-are-working-here-s-why-12057559

This is a few weeks old, but I felt it is relevant here. Noticeably absent from the “speculation” as to the reasons fewer people in their 50’s are working is the elephant in the room: Ageism. I gave up searching for work because it’s painfully obvious my capability is not the issue. AARP has permanent support education for 50+ people trying to get hired.

All I hear about with respect to frustrations being unable to find a job is focused on the youngest, while it’s the eldest that are being forced out at alarming rates. The worst part is we don’t have any recovery path, and some of us are supporting adult children who can’t find work.

We either navigated all the pratfalls life throws at us and have savings enough to “survive”, or we didn’t, and we become another near invisible member of the predominantly elder population of homeless standing by intersections hoping for a handout.

Next January possibly millions of over 50 people thrown out of work and unable to find any job (even minimum wage jobs) will lose their health coverage, since Medicaid begins requiring 20 hours per week of work to qualify.

We are well beyond “fearing dystopia” now. We’ve been living it for a decade, some would say longer.

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Comments

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floofloof@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The phrasing of this headline is a bit infuriating. Work has never been a free choice for me, and it’s less so now than ever before. I’m old and I can’t ever afford to retire, but no one wants a new employee my age. So if I lose this job I am afraid I’ll become homeless. I’m healthy and smart and capable and better at my work than I’ve ever been, but experience isn’t valued and youth is. So maybe soon I’ll be one of the people they count as “choosing” not to work but to beg on the street.

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DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Absolutely ageism. I recall applying for a job I was perfectly matched to. They might as well have just posted my resume for requirements. I happened to be 50 at the time. They made zero contact. One time is a fluke, but I kept getting ignored for jobs I was very well qualified to do. That happens a lot in the art field, and I’m sure many others.

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- Rooster326@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Bruh you are not the only one getting ghosted for jobs.
  
  It takes hundreds of applications to get an interview these days. This is for most everyone regardless of qualifications.
  
  You might not have even applied to a real job. There are literally countless “ghost jobs” out there. There is no job. They have zero intention of ever hiring anyone. See more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_job
  
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schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Yup. I’ve been thinking it’s my autistic tendencies getting in the way of me being hired, but I most often see young people being hired for the positions I’m trying for and ageism has to be playing some role.

It’s weird because I’m a much better worker and person than I was in my 20s.

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- TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Guys… Just because there is a decline in people choosing to work, it does not mean more people are doing so because of ageism. First of all 50 and over have historically shared a disproportionately large chunk of the job market. Younger baby boomers and older genx just held onto their positions longer than prior generations. Now that they are getting older and their stock portfolios now represent a huge portion of middle and upper class wealth, they are finally choosing to retire.
  
  If you look at the date people 45 and over have the lowest unemployment levels on the market, and they are being unemployed at the same pace as everyone else.
  
  I think you guys are just experiencing the same issues everyone else is in a market where people are hiring less frequently and employees are staying in positions longer. You probably just aren’t used to it compared to the younger generations where this has been a norm for their entire careers.
  
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  - schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Perhaps the higher employment rate of 50+ is just based on them already having a job and keeping it.
    
    What you want to look at is at people who are looking for a job.
    
    Are 50+ year olds getting hired at lower rates than younger cohorts?
    
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  - MasterBlaster@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Someone else already got to it before me to show that ageism is really a thing. However, I still want to comment.
    
    The dirty little secret about unemployment statistics in the United States of America is that it only counts people who are considered searching for work.
    
    Searching for work means they’re receiving unemployment benefits. My benefits ran out six to eight months ago. I am not considered unemployed. Consistently, month after month, the percentage of the population that is in the workforce is decreasing. I believe that Vickie was called the workforce participation rate. This is why the unemployment rate is so low. Everybody who can’t find a job and finally gives up drops off the list.
    
    I saw a figure that I can’t get the source for at the moment that states we have about a 14% rate of people who are unemployed who want to work.
    
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  - MasterBlaster@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    The oldest Gen X cohort is 60 years old now. we’re not holding on to anything past retirement age… yet.
    
    Note that there are many boomers who are poor and are working because they have no choice. Contrary to popular belief, most jobs were not that cushy over the last 50 to 60 years. pensions were steadily whacked, jobs were sent offshore. Maybe consider listening to the Billy Joel song called “Allentown”.
    
    Gen X is cynical and never believed they were going to get retirement anyway precisely because they watched what happened to the generation before them.
    
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  - HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    younger genx is just getting to where they can get social security. don’t see how that is hanging on to the jobs. In another decade we might see.
    
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- Rooster326@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  It’s weird because I’m a much better worker and person than I was in my 20s.
  
  Yes but you are also much more expensive than you were in your 20s. Even if you took the lower wages, the cost for insurance for the company is higher.
  
  There’s also the stigma/stereotype(?) of older individuals being stubborn and refusing to learn. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” .
  
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  - schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    That’s true. Making insurance go through employers does obviously contribute to age discrimination.
    
    And, as far as stereotypes go, yes, that is almost universally the cause of discrimination.
    
    But, in this case, as other people have pointed out, a big part of it could just be social exclusion–that is younger people want to work with younger people. I think some countries and cultures do this better than others, but in the United States there is a very strong generational segregation.
    
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- HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  This worries me a bit because I have never been diagnosed but I am that person that has always been “odd”. Tech was great in not caring about that stuff.
  
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  - schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Yup, the few places I really got along with people seemed to be at jobs autistic people gravitated to.
    
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HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
This is me. I have done relatively well but have been single income and as I started making better pay my wifes medical issues got to where it was a decent chunk of change. So we have always lived far below our means because of extraneous costs. Lost my job like two months before th election. Almost got one about a month in but the other guy scored half a point higher on the assessment. At that point things just dried up and stayed that way for awhile. Its recoverd some but between the lethargic pace of hiring, ageism, and worse having no tech work for going on two years. Well I know im not a sought after canidate at this point with the current attitudes. I subsitute teach but you can’t get a regular amount of work out of it. I keep hoping I can finagle something but so far nothing I have tried has worked. I was kinda lucky because we were used to saving for big bills and we stay away from debt to deal with what we have. Our place is old and needs renovation and we had been saving for that specifically do get disabled things in the bathrooms but also elsewhere. That has been what we have been drawing from. I have looked up on drawing from retirement accounts without penalty. Its kinda funny because I saw many a well of boomer not retiring even when they could into their 70’s and such (never understood why someone would not want to retire). Looks like we are getting the opposite.

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- AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Damn dude, that’s pretty rough :/ My partner has chronic health issues and lost their job like 2 months ago. Thank god I still have work. We’re only 40 but in 20 years I fear i will be in a similar situation to you.
  
  I am not optimistic about the future :\
  
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  - HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I do worry about those younger. It looks like everything may drop out just befor retirement for folks my age but everything seems to get worse the further on someone was born.
    
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FemboyPrincess@lemmy.ml ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Are people facing “discrimination” for being older or are they just worse with computers and phones and far more entitled?

I mean younger generations are more educated and willing to accept less pay. I think that explains the difference well enough with discrimination.

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AlphaOmega@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
When I lost a promotion to a 19 year old with zero experience vs my 40 + years experience, it’s just blatant ageism. Especially since I was going above and beyond the job requirements daily and 2x the seniority.

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- Bakkoda@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  I routinely watch manufacturing plants other high dollar/high experience workers just to save on labor. Guaranteed to cost them in overtime, downtime, oee/etc and possibly even recalls, warning letters etc.
  
  They know the cost and they don’t give a fuck. Pile it onto the consumer with higher prices.
  
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sunsofold@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The world run by MBAs…

If you are old in a professional field, you have years of experience they have to pay you for, so they hire the young guy to make the payroll smaller, even if it causes problems for some other department, because no one high enough to do anything about it is going to catch it.

If you are in the general labour space, making min wage, they know they can’t expect the same energy, and can expect you to know the ‘advancement’ they dangle over ambitious min wage workers’ heads doesn’t actually exist, so they will get more labour out of a kid for the same money.

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StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Honestly could this just be explained by how people over 50 tend to suck with phones and computers and how vital that is to most jobs now? Cause like all I can think is I wouldn’t want to hire people 50+ either.

Not saying all 50+ people but there are more people like this over 50 then under. Alot more entitlement too and less educated.

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