A Fondness For Gray Hair
In a reversal, it's a better time to be a mature job seeker
Age and wisdom may finally be gaining the advantage over youth and beauty in the workplace.
Despite the toughest job market in a decade, Americans 55 and over are holding more jobs and are now becoming targets for corporate recruiters. Employment among the 55-plus set jumped nearly 3 million in the past three years, with more than 2 million of that gain in full-time jobs. And in what AARP describes as the first salvo in a new recruiting war for the gray-haired, Home Depot recently announced an alliance--the first of its kind--with the group. AARP's 35 million members are being encouraged to apply for the retail giant's 140,000 anticipated openings this year.
Meanwhile, employment of Americans ages 25 to 54 fell by 1.1 million in the same period, and the number working full time has dropped by nearly twice that. That's a marked reversal from previous recessions: Employment of older workers fell by more than half a million from 1989 through 1992, while employment of younger workers leapt by almost 3 million. "It is remarkable," says Joseph Quinn, a Boston College economist who has been studying older Americans' work habits for decades. "A 100-year-old trend towards earlier retirement is over."
Not so rosy. At first glance, this new arrangement seems to offer hope to anyone planning to keep working into their 70s. But economists, workers, and employers alike point out that while more companies are eager to hire the gray-haired, age discrimination remains rampant. Workers over 40 are filing federal job bias claims at near-record levels, and it takes, on average, an unemployed 60-year-old eight weeks longer to find a new job than it does a 30-year-old.
And the jobs older workers accept often pay less than their previous ones and less than those offered to younger workers. Studies show that workers in their mid-60s earn at least 10 percent less than those in their mid-50s with similar qualifications and work hours. And earnings drop by more than 25 percent between the 60s and 70s.
The new elderly-friendly job market is a result of a change in the supply-demand equation. Increasingly, older workers are finding they need or want extra income, and businesses, meanwhile, are finding cheaper, more reliable, and more flexible labor. Changing demographics and attitudes have increased the supply of older workers. The pool of Americans over 55 is skyrocketing, as the leading edge of the baby boom will turn 58 this year. That means that while the number of older Americans grew by just 810,000 a year during the '90s, it is now growing at an annual rate of 1.4 million.
Many of these older Americans simply have to keep working. Corporate pension cutbacks, elimination of retiree health insurance, and battered 401(k)'s have forced millions of older Americans to keep scrambling for a paycheck. One out of four workers 45 and older has reported delaying retirement. Many, like 58-year-old steelworker Ken Cummings, have had to cancel retirement plans altogether. Cummings of Brunswick, Ohio, had been dreaming of retiring to the warmth of Florida. But in 2002, his employer, LTV, declared bankruptcy, canceled its retiree health insurance, and handed over its pension plan to the federal insurer, which cut Cummings's promised monthly payout of about $3,500 to $1,500. Cummings applied for more than 100 jobs before finally getting work as a contract courier for about $1,200 a month. That's nowhere near enough to pay for his sick wife's rising medical bills, he says. "I thought I'd be retired at the end of this year," says Cummings. "Now I'll have to work till I die."
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