Article 43
Personal
Moving from a highly-skilled, middle-class, middle-aged, telecom techie, to a low-paid, day-laborer - with little hope things will get better in my lifetime - has had a deep negative effect on my life. Posts here and in the TELECOM UNDERCLASS section are mostly about that.
Friday, September 04, 2009
Today We’re Five
Conquered states that have been accustomed to liberty and the government of their own laws can be held by the conqueror in three different ways. The first is to ruin them; the second, for the conqueror to go and reside there in person; and the third is to allow them to continue to live under their own laws, subject to a regular tribute, and to create in them a government of a few, who will keep the country friendly to the conqueror.
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The PrinceIf we seek change, we must be the change we seek.
- Gandhi
Article 43’s been on the net five years now.
And I keep writing about the same thing - the downward spiral of our country.
Not because I want to - but because that’s the way it is.
Sigh
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Some Words About Stress
Why Stress Is Making You Sick
By Barbara Basler
AARP
May, 1 2009
In the still, lonely hours before dawn, Karen Gaebelein sits in her living room chair staring out the windowat the dark skyher thoughts racing, heart pounding. At age 56, Gaebelein, who lives in Broadview Heights, Ohio, is worried about the mortgage on her condo, her shrinking retirement savings, her questionable job future.
Like millions of Americans, she is anxious, stressed by the troubling uncertainties of the faltering economy. And that stress is literally making her sick. Gaebelein, who has been unemployed for a year, has had trouble sleeping. Her blood pressure is high. She has bouts of depression. “I forget to eat some days,” says Gaebelein, who managed two offices of a credit union. “But once in a while I get a big bag of greasy fast food and a giant Hershey bar. I know I shouldnt, I know it’s bad for me, but I cant help it.”
While a certain amount of stress can increase productivity and creativity, too much can be mentally and physically damaging. Not only does stress provoke NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS such as bingeing on junk food, smoking and excessive drinking, it can also lead to ailments ranging from colds and flu to depression, high blood pressure and memory loss.
Stress that persists over the years can exacerbate conditions such as heart disease, hardening of the arteries, autoimmune disease, diabetes and ulcers, experts say. Research indicates stress can also speed the aging process.
Stress rarely causes disease, but it creates conditions that make the body more vulnerable to disease. And if you’re already sick or have a chronic illness, stress can make it worse, says Sheldon Cohen, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “Its effects ... can be long-lasting.”
Stress, he says, “is the perception that you are facing demands that exceed your ability to cope. The demands can be physical - say, if youre being pursued by a robber. Or they can be psychological - worrying about a job or money.
Today’s economic meltdown is triggering widespread psychological stress, which feeds on UNCERTAINTY AND DREAD. “We feel our control slipping and our lives growing more and more unpredictable,” says Cohen. And the mind repeatedly mulls the same questions: “What will happen next? How long will it go on? Will it get worse?”
Americans of all ages are living with the anxieties that a troubled economy brings. But some of the most stressed people, like Gaebelein, have been laid off in their last decade of work, with LESS CHANCE of finding a new job and recouping financial losses.
“Losing your job at 50 or 60 is not good for your health,” says William Gallo, a research scientist at Yale University’s School of Medicine in New Haven. There is compelling evidence that no matter who you compare the older job loser to, he or she does worse physically and mentally.”
Gallos studies, which tracked older people who lost their jobs after a plant closing, found not only that they had more symptoms of depression, but also that their risk of heart attack and stroke was more than doubled compared with people who did not lose their jobs.
Gallo says that job loss for people age 50 and older - with its attendant anxiety should be considered an added risk factor for cardiovascular problems. (When study participants found other jobs, he says, the risk was greatly reduced.)
Another finding: People who fear losing their jobs have more health problems than those who actually lost them, says Sarah A. Burgard, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. She and her team looked at 3,000 employed people under age 60 participating in two long-term studies and divided them into those who worried about losing their jobs and those who didn’t. They found that over a two-year period people who felt chronically insecure about their jobs reported much worse overall health and were more depressed than those who actually lost their jobs.
“Living with uncertainty, that’s extremely damaging to your health,” says Burgard.
Why is stress so insidious?
The stress response is an archaic mechanism designed to help PRIMITIVE MAN survive a sudden physical threat - an animal attack or a raid by warriors. Its a powerful physiological response meant to kick in briefly while the body prepares to flee or to fight the danger.
But this atavistic system has been dragged into the 21st century, says Louise Hawkley, associate director of the Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of Chicago. “What our brains often interpret as a threat todaya job loss or problems with the mortgage - can trigger the stress response and keep triggering it until it actually harms the body.”
When the brain perceives a threat, potent stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol flood the body, creating a surge of strength. Glucose (sugar) levels spike to provide energy. The heart rate jumps, and blood pressure climbs so that blood moves faster and with greater force to deliver oxygen to the muscles.
To allow the body to channel all effort toward fleeing or fighting, other hormones suppress systems that don’t directly aid those actions, including the immune, digestive, growth and reproduction functions. The body remains in this state of alertuntil the brain is convinced the threat is over.
If this massive reaction occurs repeatedly, Hawkley says, over time it wreaks havoc on the delicate hormonal responses that regulate the bodys various systems.
Elevated hormones, for example, rev up the cardiovascular system, straining the heart and blood vessels and increasing cholesterol and plaque - changes that can lead to hardening of the arteries, stroke and heart attacks.
When chronic stress disturbs the bodys correct hormonal settings, other problems can ensue, including colitis and bowel problems, and infections that breach a faulty immune system.
One study, led by Cohen, shows that people living with one of two major STRESSORS - unemployment and underemploment were five times more likely to develop colds than the unstressed.
Still, people can learn to cope, experts say, and that helps mitigate the effects of stress on health.
“The first step is to learn to NOTICE YOUR STRESS signals,” says Rajita Sinha, M.D., director of the Yale Stress Center in New Haven, Conn. “Key indicators,” she says, “include a faster heartbeat, a drop in energy, changes in appetite, teeth grinding, tension in the arms, back or neck, tightness in the stomach, and sleep problems. Attend to these signs early,” she says, “and FIND WAYS TO COPE that work for you.”
The brain is the arbiter of stress, and what sends one person into an anxious funk or even prompts THOUGHTS OF SUICIDE, hardly affects another. What’s key is that the brain can be distracted, calmed by activities that engage and provide enjoyment such as reading a great mystery, jogging with the dog or playing the trombone.
“Dealing with stress is not about moving away from the negative, its about moving toward the positive, doing things that make us happy,” says Douglas Mennin, associate professor of psychology at Yale and director of the departments Anxiety and Mood Services. He suggests engaging in activities that turn the mind away from stress, “not just on the weekend but as a regular routine.”
A crucial STRATEGY, experts say, is to STAY CONNECTED to friends and relatives. Find emotional support. LONELINESS is a major stressor that can heighten every other problem.
And remember that many people are resilient and adaptable, Mennin adds.
Karen Gaebelein says she’s trying to exercise more and see her friends. She has found satisfaction volunteering in a senior community. “I have not lost hope yet,” she says.
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Friday, June 05, 2009
Cabbie
This focus on MONEY and power may do wonders in the marketplace, but it CREATES a tremendous crisis in our society. People who have spent all day learning how to sell THEMSELVES and to MANIPULATE others ARE IN NO POSITION to form lasting friendships or intimate relationships. Many Americans hunger for a different kind of society - one based on principles of caring, ethical and spiritual sensitivity, and communal solidarity. Their need for meaning is just as intense as their need for economic security.
- Michael Lerner
People may nor remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. It was a cowboy’s life, a life for someone who wanted no boss. What I didn’t realize was that it was also a ministry.
Because I drove the night shift, my cab became a moving confessional. Passengers climbed in, sat behind me in total anonymity, and told me about their lives. I encountered people whose lives amazed me, ennobled me, made me laugh and weep. But none touched me more than a woman I picked up late one August night.
I was responding to a call from a small brick fourplex in a quiet part of town. I assumed I was being sent to pick up some partiers, or someone who had just had a fight with a lover, or a worker heading to an early shift at some factory for the industrial part of town.
When I arrived at 2:30a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.
Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked.
“Just a minute,” answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie.
By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.
“Would you carry my bag out to the car?” she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness.
“It’s nothing,” I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.” “Oh, you’re such a good boy”, she said.
When we got in the cab, she gave me and address, then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?” “It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly. “Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice”. I looked in the rear view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I don’t have very long.” I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to take?” I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes, she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.” We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.
Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her. I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
“How much do I owe you?” she asked, reaching into her purse. “Nothing,” I said. “You have to make a living,” she answered. “There are other passengers,” I responded.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said. “Thank you.” I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life. I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought.
For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away? On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life. We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.
Asad Mahmood
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Desperate Times, Desperate People
From fraud and arson to murder and suicide, extreme behavior tends to FLARE UP during economic downturns. Before you give up hope, try 5 coping strategies.
By Karen Aho
MSN Money
October 29, 2008
On the morning she realized her husband and son would learn the family was losing their house, Carlene Balderrama, 53, faxed a note to the mortgage company, then went to the basement and shot herself.
“I hope you’re more compassionate with my husband than you were with me,” she wrote in a SUICIDE note left for the company.
It is a dramatic picture of the worst that FINANCIAL STRESS CAN WRING. As home foreclosures and unemployment mount, so do their companion tales of fraud, robbery, arson and even murder. And though SUICIDES REMAIN RARE, evidence that financial stress is erupting in rash, often illegal behavior isn’t difficult to find.
“A lot of people, they just feel hopeless,” said Kita Curry, a psychologist and the president of Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in Los Angeles, where the crisis line has seen a 20% jump calls from people citing financial woes. Centers in other cities are reporting as much as a 65% increase in calls.
“If you’ve been evicted from your home and you’ve lost your job and they’re talking about unemployment rising, then what are you going to do?”
Desperate acts in down economies
It’s too early in the current downturn for national data crunchers to accurately observe fluctuations in suicides or crimes. And even then, analysts have a difficult time isolating motive, which is elusive. The underlying causes of crime trends always remain in dispute.
Debt worries? Try this free service on MSN Money: Ask A Credit Counselor
The fraud data are also incomplete because insurance companies generally don’t release comprehensive figures, said Frank Scafidi, a spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit that investigates fraud for the insurance industry.
“Most of us have a sense that when the economy’s bad, people will do things that they wouldn’t normally do, especially insurance fraud, but that’s nothing more than a sense that people have,” he said.
Still, the anecdotal indicators are hard to ignore. Nationwide, crimes of desperation are increasingly being chalked up to economic anxiety.
Bank robbery: In Cleveland earlier this year, an elderly out-of-work security guard told authorities he robbed two banks because he was desperate for a way to pay his medical bills. Lester Russaw, 74, a former R&B singer, had prostate cancer.
“I wasn’t greedy,” Russaw told the judge at his sentencing, where he got nine years.
Every region has cities experiencing a sharp rise in bank robberies—the rates have at least doubled since 2007 in Houston, Milwaukee and Jackson, Miss.—and the economy is always the first suspect.
Bankers say it’s a given in a weak economy, and the robbers apparently agree. One robber in the San Francisco Bay Area told police who had chased him that he’d had to do it—because of the economy.
Vehicle abandonment: The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, a nonprofit alliance of industry and government agencies, has gathered some data on this insurance scam. In a survey of a dozen locales, the coalition found a spike in owners ditching their vehicles in an attempt to collect insurance.
Most often, cars are torched to erase evidence. But they’re also abandoned in the desert, sunk in rivers, sold to “chop shops” or on eBay, or parked in the path of a hurricane. Many are high-end vehicles and large SUVs.
Among people accused of “owner give-ups” were two New Jersey school principals and a guidance counselor, whose cars were found burning in lots.
“Economic downturns turn normally honest, middle-class people who wouldn’t steal a candy bar from a drugstore into insurance crooks,” said James Quiggle, a spokesman for the coalition. “That tells you how desperate the current meltdown is making many people.”
Insurance companies may be taking note. In a separate coalition survey of 41 insurers, more than half said they had increased anti-fraud efforts and expect to spend even more in 2009.
Boat sinkings: Here’s how it works in Florida. Owners give their boats to smugglers of illegal drugs or immigrants. If the boat is seized by authorities, the owners claim theft, said Jim Sanislo, a private investigator in Delray Beach. Others sink their crafts in water too deep to trigger a swift or cheap investigation by their insurers.
The number of owners making phony insurance claims is up, Sanislo said, on top of already high incidents of fraud.
“The insurance companies are not assiduous about investigating,” he said. “This is why people do this.”
One insurance company alone had three so-called put-downs of $1 million boats in the past 18 months and paid out without investigating, Sanislo said.
“The more money you got, the easier it is, and the oceans are very deep,” he said.
Home arson: “Million-dollar boats are easy to scuttle,” Quiggle said. Homes, however, are not.
Yet more people seem to be trying to get insurance money by torching their houses, Quiggle said.
In Indiana, a couple said they had awakened to flames in the middle of the night and escaped, with the husband running back in to rescue the pets. The house was two days from foreclosure, an easy red flag for investigators, and the couple later admitted the husband hadn’t made payments in 20 months, unbeknown to his wife.
In Houston, a man removed his belongings and tried to stage a hate crime. In Florida, a woman tried to set up a fake rape story before a fire, authorities say. In California, neighbors’ homes were damaged by a blaze. All were on the eve of foreclosure.
“These are desperate people who are not thinking clearly,” Quiggle said. “They feel they are backed into a corner and have no way out.
“Many of these homeowners don’t realize that they’re up against fraud investigators who have seen these things before. It’s not logical; it’s not well-thought-through.”
Suicide and murder: In the most troubling cases, homeowners kill themselves. Sometimes they kill other people before lighting a match or taking their own lives.
In Florida, a man killed his wife and dog before torching their house and killing himself. In Minnesota, a man died of smoke inhalation in a fire he had started. Both homes were facing foreclosure.
In a case highlighted by Congress, a 90-year-old Ohio widow shot herself in the chest as deputies were en route to evict her. She is recovering and has said it was “a crazy thing to do.”
According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, money and the economy are now the leading causes of stress.
When people are exposed to severe, chronic stress with no end in sight, “the average person is going to have difficulty,” said Nancy Molitor, a clinical psychologist and an association spokeswoman.
The most HORRIFIC CASE of a financially triggered crime occurred in October, when an unemployed financial manager killed five family members—his wife, mother-in-law and three sons—and then shot himself at their Los Angeles home.
Karthik Rajaram, 45, left a note for police in which he cited economic troubles and said he’d considered suicide alone but opted for taking his family as the honorable thing to do.
“I’m not sure that they lost all their money, but they were going to be humiliated in his eyes,” said Curry, the psychologist.
Financial anxiety and shame
James D. Scurlock, the writer and director of “Maxed Out,” a film and book about credit card abuse, said he didn’t expect to encounter such depths of personal despair during his research.
“Originally I conceived ‘Maxed Out’ as being kind of romp through consumer culture and consumerism,” he said. “When I started interviewing people who had really been victims of predatory lending or had gotten in so deep they couldn’t get out, I was shocked by what an emotional issue it was, by what a defining issue it was.”
Each of the dozens of debt-saddled subjects Scurlock interviewed said they had experienced suicidal thoughts.
“Everyone I met blamed themselves, and no one expected to be bailed out,” he said. “These collectors had become such a huge part of their lives that they lost their perspective. They really started to believe that this would never end.”
Until he saw the police at the house, John Balderrama thought his family and his finances were fine.
Balderrama believes his wife felt shame, although she hid it well. Before her suicide, she had revealed their true financial picture to no one.
“I think she felt like she had failed me,” he said. “She panicked. She just didn’t know which way to turn at the time. When someone’s telling you you’ve got to be out of your house at 5 o’clock because they’re going to put it up for auction, what do you expect?”
But her response was not the answer, said Balderrama, who is trying to establish a fund in her name for struggling homeowners.
“There are always ways to make it work,” he said. “You don’t want to go through what I’m going through.”
Keep some perspective
Psychologists advise:
Beware if loved ones seem lethargic or withdrawn, if they make comments about being worthless or if they start giving away possessions. If they seem anxious about bills, offer to get them help, even if it’s an uncomfortable conversation.
If you’re feeling anxious, talk to people. Private burdens weigh more than shared ones. “If you’re trying to go it alone, you’re putting yourself at tremendous risk psychologically,” psychologist Molitor said.
Discuss practical options with other people.
Stick to routines, including regular sleep and eating patterns.
Know that resources are available at all hours. In a crisis, people can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255); Homeowner’s HOPE, a national hot line for foreclosures, at 1-888-995-HOPE (4673); or, in many towns, dial 211 to be routed to a help center.
Additional help is available from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling via its Web site or at 1-866-481-6322, a toll-free number. The foundation can provide advice and debt counseling, and make referrals to other resources.
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
Boomers Burned By Recession Part 2
It was a real eye-opener to see the caliber of people we were in line with - very educated with vast skill sets,” Easton said in an e-mail. “Afterwards, we went to the restaurant located in the same hotel and it was filled with unemployed professionals sharing their story, from engineers to graphic designers to marketing professionals.”
- Amber Easton, unemployed, January 29, 2009
Longer Unemployment for Those 45 and Older
By Michael Luo
NY Times
April 12, 2009
When Ben Sims, 57, showed up earlier this year for a job interview at a company in Richardson, Tex., he noticed the hiring manager several decades his junior - falter upon SPOTTING HIM in the lobby.
"Her face actually dropped,” said Mr. Sims, who was dressed in a conservative business suit, BEFITTING HIS 25-YEAR CAREER in human resources AT I.B.M.
Later, in her office, after several perfunctory questions, the woman told Mr. Sims she did not believe the job would be suitable for him. And, barely 10 minutes later she stood to signal the interview was over.
“I knew very much then it was an AGE SITUATION,” said Mr. Sims, who has been looking for work since November 2007, a month before the economic downturn began.
The recessions onslaught has come as Mr. Sims and many others belonging to the post-World War II baby boom generation - the demographic burst from 1946 to 1964 that reshaped the country remain years from retirement. But unemployed boomers, many of whom believed they were still in the prime of their careers, are confronting the grim reality that they face some of the STEEPEST ODDS OF ANY JOB SEEKERS in this dismal market.
Unemployed workers ages 45 and over form a disproportionate share of the hard-luck recession category, the LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED - those who have been out of work for six months or longer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On average, laid-off workers in this age group were out of work 22.2 weeks in 2008, compared with 16.2 weeks for younger workers.
Even when they are finally able to land jobs, they typically experience a much steeper drop in earnings than their younger counterparts.
Older workers do hold some advantages. Many have avoided layoffs during this recession, and government statistics show that people 45 and older currently have a lower unemployment rate than younger workers.
Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, said companies were often reluctant to lose the experience of older workers, many of whom also have the protections that often come with age and seniority.
Recent data, however, has shown the advantage deteriorating. “If you are old and have a job, you are less likely - albeit less, less likely than in the old days to be fired,” Dr. Munnell said.
The unemployment rate in March for workers age 45 and over was 6.4 percent, the highest since at least 1948, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking unemployment on a monthly basis.
But once older workers lose their jobs, Dr. Munnell said, then it’s horrible. They have a MUCH HARDER TIME FINDING WORK again than younger job-seekers, and statistics appear to show that it is harder for them in this recession than previous ones.
(During earlier downturns, workers aged 45 and over were unemployed an average of 19 weeks in 1982 and just under 17 weeks in 2001.)
Many out-of-work baby boomers have despaired as they wonder whether to trim their resumes to avoid giving away their decades of work experience, or to dye their hair.
More of them are now choosing to fight back. Age discrimination complaints were up nearly 30 percent in fiscal year 2008 over the year before, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (The period ended just before the worst of the recession began.)
But the vast majority of those complaints involved layoffs. DISCRIMINATION in hiring is often almost IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE.
“Especially in this day and age when you apply online, you’re not even told why you cant get past the FIRST SCREENING,” said Laurie McCann, a senior lawyer with AARPs Litigation Foundation.
Mr. Sims, in Texas, was so incensed by how he was treated that he tried to call the company’s chief executive but was unable to get through. He never seriously considered filing a formal complaint.
“I know enough about H.R. procedures and H.R. situations, it would have never gone anywhere,” he said.
Assessing just how pervasive age discrimination is in the job market is difficult. Certainly, older workers believe that it is rampant an AARP survey in 2007 of workers from the ages 45 to 74 found that 60 percent said they had seen or experienced age bias.
Joanna N. Lahey, an economics professor at Texas A&M University, conducted a study published in 2005 in which she sent out 4,000 resumes on behalf of hypothetical job-seeking women ranging in age from 35 to 62 for entry-level jobs to companies in Boston and St. Petersburg, Fla., changing only the applicants high school graduation year, an age indicator. Dr. Lahey found workers under age 50 were more than 40 percent more likely to be called back for an interview.
OLDER WORKERS often accumulate knowledge specific to their firms that helps protect them from layoffs, Dr. Lahey said. But that background is often less useful to other employers.
Older workers must also battle stereotypes about their energy and adaptability, as well as the reality that their health care costs are higher.
The oldest baby boomers have already begun retiring. But with retirement accounts plunging in value, more older workers than ever are trying to stay in the work force. And some unemployed boomers, frustrated after months of fruitless searching, have concluded their only option is to turn their backs on successful careers and start over at much lower pay.
Jonathan Steinberg, 53, a former marketing executive, has been out of work for more than two years. With a resume that includes an undergraduate degree from Yale and an M.B.A. from New York University, he had a career on a steady upward progression. His most recent position was as senior vice president for communications and marketing at a large organization for the care of the elderly, where he was paid about $170,000 a year.
But after applying for more than 100 jobs and getting few responses, he is now exploring work as a paralegal or a teacher. He believes his age and experience make for slim odds of landing even a junior-level marketing position at this point.
I’ve got one to send to college next year, with two more behind her, Mr. Steinberg said. “I cant continue to wait for good news on the old job front.”
Ron Higgins, 52, is one of about 100 former employees of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in the San Francisco Bay Area who filed an age-discrimination complaint against the lab after a round of layoffs in May.
The lab had PROMISED to lay off workers with less seniority first, said Mr. Higgins, who had worked there for more than two decades. But Mr. Higgins, who was a painting supervisor, believes he was picked because of his age, pointing out he cost the company more than many of his younger colleagues, with his salary climbing to about $80,000 a year and full medical benefits due to him in retirement if he continued working until he was 65.
Since his layoff, Mr. Higgins, who has two children of high school age at home, said he has APPLIED FOR COUNTLESS JOBS and has gotten only one interview for a janitorial job with a school district. Once again, he said, he believes his age is to blame.
“They’re saying, Wait a minute, this guy is almost done working,” Mr. Higgins said.
After running through his severance pay and retirement savings, Mr. Higgins and his wife, who runs a struggling printing business from home, have now fallen two months behind on a risky mortgage on a home they purchased in 1999. They had already been struggling to make their house payments before his layoff and are now $40,000 in credit card debt. They recently got a notice in the mail that the bank would begin foreclosure proceedings in 30 days.
“Sometimes I just BREAK DOWN and start crying,” he said, explaining his feeling of powerlessness. “I cant do anything about my situation.”
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Unemployment Hits Baby Boomers Hard
By Paul Briand
Examiner
February 11, 1009
It’s bad enough that Baby Boomers are falling into the ranks of the unemployed at an alarming rate. But what’s worse, according to an AARP survey, is that they are likely to stay unemployed longer or just drop out of the workforce altogether.
“Long-term unemployment tends to be a greater problem for older job seekers than their younger counterparts,” says a report from the AARP Public Policy Institute.
According to December 2008 labor statistics cited by the report, 32 percent of job seekers aged 55 and over remained unemployed for 27 weeks or more. Compare that to 23 percent of those ages 25 to 54, and 18 percent of those under age 25.
Here’s a snapshot of what the AARP found:
At the end of December, there were 11.1 million unemployed men and women ... 1.4 million were at least 55 years old
The number of newly unemployed in December increased by 632,000 ... about 60,000 were 55 and older
Men accounted for 60 percent of that December increase
The December unemployment rate for the 55-plus workforce was the highest monthly rate it has been since October 1992.
Statistically, the over 55 workforce unemployment is running at a lower rate than other age groups.
But there’s a concern that once unemployed, the Baby Boomers are just dropping out of the workforce for good.
“Many older workers who lose their jobs drop out of the labor force rather than continue what can be a long and fruitless job search. Some of them say that they would like to be working, even though they are not looking for a job,” said the AARP report.
“The number of older persons classified as discouraged by the Bureau of Labor Statistics nearly tripled from December 2007 to December 2008, rising from 53,000 to 154,000.”
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