Interesting Editorial piece

Out of Work, and Running Out of Hope
Published: September 26, 2010


Re “For the Unemployed Over 50, Fears of Never Working Again” (“The New Poor” series, front page, Sept. 20):

For seven years, I’ve worked as a career and executive coach with private and corporate clients. From union members to entrepreneurs, from Generation Y to baby boomers, my clients share one recurring issue: ageism in the workplace.

What’s changed in the recession is the ages. Your article understates the case. Today, even clients in their late 20s worry about being passed over in favor of new graduates who can be paid less. Never working again, at least in a job that pays middle-class wages or better and offers benefits, terrifies many in the over-35 crowd.

As a nation, we recognize the evils of racial, ethnic and religious discrimination. We’re less willing to acknowledge the pervasiveness, and costs, of age discrimination.

Let’s face up to the scope of the problem, enact tough laws and develop policies that provide a strong safety net and real opportunities for everyone regardless of age.

Rebecca Kiki Weingarten
Brooklyn, Sept. 20, 2010

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To the Editor:

Having spent the bulk of my professional life working with “older worker” employment programs, I am dismayed to learn how little progress has been made.

Twenty-five years ago we were telling older job seekers how valuable their skills and life experiences were, while simultaneously suggesting that they fudge the age question on their résumés.

We were selling computer training to anyone who would sit still, though our typical client back then was over 65. Today even much younger, more computer-literate people are not finding jobs, as your article reported.

Given the huge number of skilled unemployed people and the scarcity of jobs, so-called employment programs will have little effect unless there is job growth. This country will need something far greater than today’s puny efforts in economic development, or failed “trickle-down” policies of the past, if we are to prevent the expansion of poverty to include those who have worked all their lives.

Polly Windels
Ballston Spa, N.Y., Sept. 20, 2010

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To the Editor:

Your excellent, and sadly true, article about the plight of the middle-aged unemployed illustrates the insidious issue of ageism.

It is illegal to discriminate by age. Yet it is all too easy for employers to do so. And although ageism is rampant in almost all industries, it is particularly prevalent in the hospitality industry, especially restaurants and hotels, where one is more visible to the public.

Indeed, many employers now blatantly “request” (read “require”) photos from job applicants — an open invitation to discrimination by age. It seems that employers are willing to sacrifice knowledge and experience in exchange for “young” faces, even if they are novices.

It is time for the various federal, state and municipal human rights commissions to crack down on ageism.

Ian Alterman
New York, Sept. 20, 2010

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To the Editor:

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is currently meeting behind closed doors and looking at raising the retirement age or otherwise reducing our already meager Social Security benefits. But one simple thing we should do to address the problems described in your article is to lower the age at which workers can begin collecting full Social Security benefits.

Such a move would clearly help hard-working older Americans who are now being left behind by our crippled job market. Equally important, allowing some employed workers to retire earlier would open up additional American jobs for eager young workers who are now among the ranks of the unemployed.

Both retirees and the newly employed would have money to spend, creating new demand to stimulate our ravaged economy.

Stacy Bermingham
San Diego, Sept. 20, 2010

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To the Editor:

Too many employers have decided to turn a blind eye to both the experience and the desperation of middle-aged workers. Empathy is not a dirty word. Retraining a mature worker on new software isn’t a budget-busting, time-wasting exercise.

Businesses big and small should open up their coffers and hire more of the aching-to-be productive middle-aged and formerly middle class.

Arthur Chertowsky
Brooklyn, Sept. 20, 2010