By Kate Giammarise
TOLEDO, Ohio —
Baby boomers have long been a demographic group associated with cultural and personal changes.
But as many boomers have lost their jobs and faced long-term unemployment in the Great Recession, career change has been difficult.
Jack Frech, director of Athens County Job and Family Services in southern Ohio, said he often sees firsthand unemployed baby boomers having a hard time with a career transition.
“They’re working at fast food places, restaurants, waiting tables, they’re working in retail,” he said. “It’s very tough out there.”
Frech’s observation is correct, studies say. Older workers (age 55 and above) have the lowest re-employment rate of any demographic group, according to a research paper released last year by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. While the Great Recession has impacted workers of all ages, older workers have fared especially poorly, the Heldrich Center found.
These workers tend to remain out of work longer, are less likely to be re-employed, and tend to experience sharper declines in wages than younger workers when they do find new jobs. While 7 in 10 out-of-work older workers reported they considered changing their careers to find a new job, only 12 percent enrolled in training for that purpose, the researchers found. Why? Reluctance to change careers before connecting with another employer in their industry and lack of funds to pay for the costs of education and training, according to the paper.
Bill Turner, workforce administrator in Ohio, said his agency sees a mix of people who do and don’t want to change fields. Many people must first deal with the initial shock and trauma of losing a job and stabilize their life and finances before they figure out their next step, such as a new career field, he said.
Frech believes many older workers end up in service jobs rather than re-tooling for a new career because of the expense of education. By contrast, a service job fulfills the immediate need for income and fits with many boomers’ ability to work hard.
“They have a good work ethic. They show up. They follow orders,” he said.
The Heldrich Center study notes the current unemployment system is not well suited to address the problems of older workers in a prolonged recession who “may need to undertake long-term — and expensive — retraining programs in order to find another job.” It concluded, “Without additional assistance, millions of older workers will be left behind when the economy recovers and will suffer continued financial crises.”
The baby boomers James Ford sees tend to fall into one of three categories: people fearful of a career change, those eager to make a change or those who must make a career change because they have no other option. The last category of workers often are forced to take whatever low-wage job they can find.
Ford, deputy director of Ross County Job and Family Services in southern Ohio, said many laid off older workers don’t end up changing careers because the idea is simply too daunting or the fear that employers won’t hire them because of their age.
When older displaced workers do find jobs, they typically experience sharp wage declines, according to a policy paper released last year by the Urban Institute.
But Joe Catalano, who coordinates the employment ministry at Blessed John XXIII parish in Perrysburg, said many of the laid off professionals he assisted didn’t need to retrain for a new field, they just needed to improve their resume writing, networking and job-search skills.
Doris Beach is employment and training coordinator at Experience Works in Toledo, a national organization that helps older adults find jobs. She encourages the clients she works with to retrain and learn new skills. Some of the job-seekers she works with are learning to install security systems, training to drive trucks or forklifts and getting certified to be early childhood educators or nurses’ aides.
A recent brief from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) also noted some older workers are considering or have already taken up the ultimate career change — early retirement.
Are boomers, who came of age in the era of upheaval in the 1960s and ’70s, more able to adapt and change?
“They’re living longer, they’re educated and most of them want to continue to contribute. You can’t just count them out,” Beach said. — AP
