Older Individuals Adapting to Job Market Changes

In the United States, older individuals are beginning to adapt to the frequent changes that are taking place within the job market. One man, Larry Wilson, happens to be 57-years-old and had been working as a substitute teacher for several years, believing that the chance of finding full-time work was simply impossible for someone his age. And, he is not the only person who thought this way as many of the individuals in the United States that are older than 50 years old have felt the same way at some point in time. Wilson has said, “We all know that people are supposedly created equal, and that there’s no discrimination.” He then said, “Then there’s the real world.” What he has said is quite true because as reality would have it, the unemployment rate for individuals between the ages of 55 and older has greatly increased since the start of the Great Recession, having increased by a whopping total of 103 percent. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has also provided information, stating that individuals 55 years of age or older will typically wait, on average, for a total of 56 weeks before they find employment, even if they are actively seeking it.

Older individuals have definitely been struggling to find work ever since the Great Recession took place, causing the economy to go into turmoil and the job market to drastically change. The President of the AARP, Robert Robasco, says, “It’s difficult to prove without a shadow of doubt that it’s discrimination.” He also said, “But if you talk to anyone over 50 looking for job, you know they’re not feeling the love.” And, it is true; since older individuals cannot necessarily prove that they are being discriminated on due to their age but often feel as though they are because they are not getting hired nearly as fast as younger individuals.

It is believed that one of the major problems is the resumes of older individuals, as they tend to have more experience which is a good thing but causes companies to feel as though they would have to pay a fortune to hire the individual. This is something that puts struggling businesses off from hiring these older individuals. It is believed that if an older individual, someone over the age of 50, is willing to try out different career paths, they will likely have more success with finding the employment they have actively been seeking for quite a while now. It is all about being willing to take on a different direction, even if it means taking on unfamiliar territory.