Mature Workers Face Added Obstacles in Job Search as Recession Looms : Economy: They consider themselves young, productive and experienced. Yet, they believe they are victims of a hidden discrimination.
Sometimes Harry Worsey fears that he will never work again.
In his darkest moments, he sees himself permanently labeled as an older person--devalued and ignored in a job market that a looming recession makes tighter every day. When Worsey’s company moved to New York, he believed that the economy that had never failed him before would provide him another job.
But now it has been a year.
“I not only have the typical problems of job searching that everyone seems to be having now, but I have problems-plus because I am considered a mature worker,” said Worsey, a 56-year-old technical writer and editor who lives in Clarksburg, Md.
To become more flexible, Worsey is studying bookkeeping and computer technology during long afternoons at the public library. He has registered with two temporary employment agencies. And he attends job fairs, studies the classified ads and has lowered his salary requirements from the $38,500-a-year he was paid in his most recent job to a negotiable figure of $10,000 less. But he is worried that a 30-year career is ending.
“The fact is, I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to do as a mature worker,” he said. “Aren’t I worth anything anymore? Shouldn’t I even send out my resume? Should I just lie down and say it’s all over? For the first time in my working experience, I wonder if I will ever find a job.”
But giving up is not an option to Worsey and other over-50 workers who are finding the worsening economy taking their jobs while they are still too young for retirement pensions and Social Security benefits.
They too have mortgages to pay and, often, children in school. They still consider themselves quite young and certainly productive. They feel their decades of working experience have given them much to offer employers. Yet, they believe they are victims of a hidden form of discrimination that is spreading as the economy worsens.
For many, it is humiliating to be looking for work again at this stage in their lives--in contrast to younger people who may be more accustomed to changing jobs periodically.
Experts in economics and aging agree that mature workers have problems re-entering the work force in the best of times, despite federal laws prohibiting age discrimination. Now, they said, those difficulties are magnified by a shaky economy that already has rattled the ranks of contractors, consultants, engineers and managers.
“The number of age-discrimination complaints is on the rise. It’s one of the fastest-growing areas of the law,” said David Gamse, of the Jewish Council for the Aging. “If a person is told that he or she is overqualified for a job, then that person is a victim of age discrimination, because you can’t be overqualified--you’re either qualified or you’re not.”
“It’s a nightmare to be out of work right now,” said Richard Wainwright, 59, of Rockville, Md., who was vice president of research for an area engineering firm until cutbacks in June wiped out the research department.
“You wake up in the morning thinking about it,” he said. “Without faith in the Lord, you’d commit suicide. Things have to be paid and food has to be bought and gas put in the car. You’re not used to scrimping. And you start worrying about crazy things like becoming a street person. You have those thoughts.”
“An employer can look at my resume and see that I’m a World War II veteran,” said Robert W. Greene, of Hyattsville, Md., an electronic systems expert who was laid off in February at the age of 64 and is not ready to retire.
“I have nothing to prove that the lack of response is due to my age,” he said, “but I don’t think companies right now like to get people into their insurance programs if they think we are going to cost them money. Rather than call us in for an interview and see how we look, they just stay away from us altogether.”
Unemployment statistics don’t reflect the problem accurately, officials said, because the numbers do not include workers who were forced into early retirement, who had to take lesser jobs outside their fields or who have simply given up looking for work. In September, unemployment nationally for people 55 and older was 3.5%, compared to 5.7% overall.
“One thing we find, if you’re over 40, even, and you try to get back in the work force, you have to wear another hat and probably make less money,” said Joan L. Kelly, of the American Assn. of Retired Persons.
“There’s nothing you can really document,” said Philip Rones, a senior economist with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “but I think a lot of firms are uncomfortable hiring older people. There seem to be a lot of perceptions about older workers--that they’re resistant to change, unable to learn new things. The fact is, they are not drug addicts. They are likely to stay longer and not change jobs. And they were brought up in an era of different work values.”
Perhaps a fuller picture than anything supplied by statistics was offered recently at a Job Fair for Mature Workers in Rockville, Md., which attracted nearly 1,200 people. Nearly 60% of the applicants said they are looking for full-time work, compared to 27% last year. Hundreds of resumes piled up on the employer tables, telling stories of long careers abruptly ended and a desperate need to work again:
“I am 60 years old and I have 40 years of experience,” said an engineer from Rockville who was laid off because of defense cutbacks.
“I have worked on projects in Trinidad, Turkey and Alaska,” said a 58-year-old construction manager from Vienna, Va.
“I have many good years of work ahead of me, I hope,” said a former federal employee, also 58, who lives in Washington.
Employers who participated in the fair said they were surprised at the advanced backgrounds and skills of the applicants. Mature workers, they said, bring stability, experience and a sense of responsibility to their jobs. But asked about current openings, several admitted that their firms are in the midst of hiring freezes and have no jobs to offer.
“There’s a whole wealth of resources here,” said Vicki Pendleton, a recruiter for International Business Machines Corp., who said the company is doing “limited hiring” in the technical field and was bombarded with applicants at the fair. “I’m amazed at the excellent experience of these people.”
The event, which was sponsored by Job Support for Seniors, an employment program of the Jewish Council for the Aging, has doubled in size in each of its four years. This time, almost half the participants surveyed said they would like training in computers, an indication, coordinators said, of a willingness to change direction in jobs.
At this point, Worsey said, he is certainly willing to try something new. He would like to return to writing and editing, but he realizes that may not be possible. He gives thanks daily that his wife, Merilee, has a secure job as a corporate librarian.
