Staying on Job Pays Off for Older Workers : Demographics: People who decide not to retire say they gain both financially and personally. Officials say the employers win, too.

At an age when most have retired, 70-year-old Juanita Allen bounds out of bed in Oxnard at 5:45 a.m. each morning to arrive on the job half an hour early.

Allen, as a full-time billing clerk, belongs to the small fraction of Ventura County’s elderly who find economic and personal rewards in continuing to work long after most of their peers have dropped from the labor force.

As the aging of America continues, demographers say employers will have to hire workers over 65 to keep the economy moving. Social service agencies, in turn, are gearing up to break down the barriers of age discrimination that have blocked some from jobs they seek.

“The older worker has some advantages over the younger worker in that they’re experienced, stable, reliable, flexible, productive, more committed,” said Sue Tatangelo, program planner for Ventura County’s Area Agency on Aging.

Tatangelo’s efforts to encourage employers to hire senior citizens got a boost this week as President Bush announced National Employ the Older Worker Week. His proclamation is aimed at nudging employers to consider older workers and applaud the work habits of people like Allen.

“I’ve worked all my life,” said Allen, now in her fifth career over a span of 56 years. “It’s all I know.”

Allen works for the Ventura County Commission on Human Concerns, a nonprofit agency in Oxnard that has several elderly employees, including one whose position is subsidized with federal dollars through a program administered by the Area Agency on Aging.

Tatangelo runs the program, known as Title V, which helps place people over 55 in jobs around Ventura County by issuing grants to employers. The hope is that these employers will hire the workers permanently once the grants run out.

The agency gave out $52,960 in grants last year so that seven people over 55 could be hired by employers around the county. Through this program, Inez (Boots) Legan, 69, got hired as assistant activities director at the Oak Tree House in Ojai and Pearl Bressinger, 66, took a clerical job at the Simi Valley Adult School.

The three women have only themselves to support, but as long as they are healthy, they said, they will continue to work.

Tatangelo said finding a job helps senior citizens hold onto their self-esteem. But hiring an older employee also can benefit the employer.

“They don’t have the distractions that the younger worker does,” Tatangelo said.

Tatangelo said studies show that while some employers may not think so, older workers are trainable.

Allen, for instance, has mastered the computerized billing system at the Oxnard-based agency that helps low-income residents.

Allen took herself out of the labor force for two years after 15 years of doing accounting work for an Oakland firm. At her granddaughter’s urging, she decided to take a computer course at Pasadena City College while she tried to make do with her meager Social Security checks.

For the past two years, she has been staying with her daughter in Oxnard during the week, driving back to her home in Los Angeles on weekends. “Oh, I love it, because it’s good money and a good job,” she said.

Legan of Ojai is known by many as the former manager of Rexall Drug Ojai, where she worked for 23 years. Legan was asked to come and work at the Oak Tree House, a day-care center for elderly people unable to care for themselves.

“We like to call it the clubhouse,” Legan said. “It’s kind of a fun place to be. . . . You get attached to these people.”

Legan spends 25 hours a week at Oak Tree, earning $6 an hour, to supplement her Social Security check. But given the chance, she said, she could toil even harder and longer.

Legan said neither her age nor her stamina is an issue. She said she stopped worrying about her age when she turned 60. She turns 70 on July 1. “I think I could work 80 hours a week at part-time jobs,” she said.

Bressinger does clerical work for 15 hours a week at the Simi Valley Adult School, only minutes from her house.

Bressinger, who ran a physician’s office for a dozen years, decided several years ago to go back to work to keep her mind sharp and to earn some money. “I hate staying home because it’s boring. . . . It’s not enough for me.”

Bressinger said she plans to work as long as she remains healthy. “This way,” she said, “you keep alive.”