Is Long Term Unemployment Rising?

There is little doubt that many good people have have had a very hard time finding and keeping good jobs lately. It seems like general job outlook may be a little more rosy than it was a year or two ago. But if you look at the data, you will find that many workers and professionals have been out of work for over a year. The the long term unemployment problem is hardly over yet. One group of people that seems to be having a really hard time are older workers. Layoff seem to impact workers over 55 the worst. They have a particularly hard time finding new jobs. Research shows that profession or education level do not matter as much as age in this case. Why are older folks having such a tough time finding a new job? After all, many middle age workers and professionals have been at the job for many years. They should bring a lot of experience and knowledge to an interview table.

What makes it tough for older folks to find work? There is probably more than one reason for this problem. It could be that young adults are more flexible and mobile.They might simply have more current job skills. Of course, younger people may get back to work faster because they are less picky. Since older folks may have been working for a long time, they may expect a higher salary, or better benefits, than the market supports right now.

Hiring managers could even be reluctant to hire older people. Some hiring managers may believe that younger employees will be easier to train and manage. They could also bring more updated job skills. Many older job hunters believe this is real. This has even be in the news. It is called the "Gray Wall". People who have been out of work for over a year are considered the long term unemployed. If you take all of the people over fifty-five, who are unemployed, over forty percent have been out of work for longer than a year. A large percentage of these laid of workers are having a very hard time sliding into new jobs. There are several serious problems for people who have been out of work a long time. They may lose their edge when it comes to having current job skills. Technology changes so quickly these days that a year can be a very long time. When a person is out of work for a long time, they may be more prone to depression, or at least a loss of confidence. It could also hurt job skills. Finally, this situation has got to be tough on people's retirement savings. These people could be using up their retirement savings to pay bills. They are probably not making big contributions to their retirement funds because they have no income.

Unemployed people have gotten a lot of attention. In my opinion, we should pay particular attention to people who have been out of work for a year or more, and we should also pay attention to older people who are unemployed. Some older workers have not had to find a new job for a long time. They probably also need to improve their job seeking skills..

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