The Last “Legal?” Job Discrimination

Hello Boomers, 

Today we are going to take a bit of a detour from our latest focus of highlighting the ReInvention Stories of Baby Boomers.  However, in my humble opinion, our topic today is a big part of the reason that so many Boomers and others remain unemployed even as the “recovery” has been underway for a year.

It is the nasty little phenomenon of “The Unemployed Need Not Apply” that some viewed as more of an urban myth than a proven reality.  There have been many articles and even some TV programs that have highlighted this nasty tactic but they often failed to name names.  When they did, the offenders claimed that it was a “mistake” and quickly removed the offending job listings.  Yet the practice persists.

On July 13, 2011, Business Insider  published a list of 72 discriminatory job announcements.  Each of them requires that you be currently employed to even be considered.   These announcements come from recruiters and direct employers and the advertised jobs are located all across the U.S. and abroad.  

The skill levels required for these positions range from a little to a lot and the positions advertised run the gamut from part-time freight handler to orthopedic surgeon  – with everything in between. 

We understand the need to hire a practicing surgeon rather than one whose skills have gone rusty but we don’t understand the need to hire a receptionist who is currently answering phones rather than one who answered phones a month ago. 

How many heating, ventilating, and air conditioning technicians must have lost their jobs due to the poor housing market?  Yet they cannot qualify for what might be the only such job in their area if they are not currently employed.  Have the steps and knowledge required to install a new boiler or a furnace or an air conditioner really changed so drastically during the past several years when few new buildings of any kind have been built and maintenance of mechanical systems has been pushed off whenever possible due to the sour economy? 

Sales representatives were the single largest group to be targeted in these listings, with jobs from used car sales to pharmaceutical device sales representatives included in the “must currently be employed” category.  Sales managers were also hit hard.  Evidently one loses their management skills when unemployed. 

From project managers to emergency service dispatchers, from accountants to paralegals, from litigation attorneys to sign installers, from scientists to teachers, American business leaders seem to believe that your brains stop working and your skills atrophy when unemployment strikes – even if that period of unemployment has been mercifully short. 

It also doesn’t seem to matter if you have spent your unemployment staying current in your field or learning new skills or technologies.  If you don’t currently have a job these shortsighted employers and recruiters won’t even take a look at your resume. 

The longer they persist with this bias, the more of a self-fulfilling prophecy it becomes.  Today, over 40% of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for over a year! 

We can certainly understand an employer’s reluctance to hire the unemployed during times of prosperity.  During such times, losing one’s job may mean that skills were poor or goals weren’t met, that personalities were difficult or attendance was lacking.  But when thousands of people are sent packing through no fault of their own, when hundreds of thousands, then millions cannot find a job due to this economic crisis, it seems patently unfair to deem the unemployed as unqualified for the few jobs that are available simply because they are unemployed. 

How can an employer hope to get the best employee when they disqualify a whole group, literally millions of people, without ever looking at their skills, their backgrounds, their education, or their experiences? 

Unfortunately, the EEOC isn’t yet sure if this form of discrimination is illegal.  Perhaps that is why it has become so much more overt and is no longer a hard-to-prove urban legend passed along by anecdotes and stories. 

The National Employment Law Project is looking into this issue and hopes to create a federal law to stop this practice.  We hope they are successful but even if they are, we worry that the practice will simply “go underground”.  We hope that they attach some teeth to the proposed law,   perhaps by at least asking employers how many of their new hires were previously unemployed.  

It is often difficult to discern which employers adhere to this philosophy as they often hide behind recruiters who continue to support and spread this ugly practice.  If you do discover an employer who is excluding the millions of well qualified yet still unemployed workers, please hold them accountable. 

Tell them you won’t be buying their products as long as they continue practicing this cruel bias against the unemployed.  Money talks and when dollars walk, perhaps we will see a change.  

We also hope that if you already are a hiring business owner, or when you start your own business and need to hire employees  that you will welcome unemployed applicants, especially older workers who are really having a tough time of it.   I know it’s a cliché but …be the change you want to see. 

Here is the link to the Business Insider article which lists the companies (when they were hiring directly) and the recruiters who were either accepting work from such discriminatory employers or taking it upon themselves to eliminate the unemployed from consideration.  http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-discriminate-against-unemployed-2011-7 

Here is a link to the proposed law that will attempt to put an end to this practice.  Call your elected representatives to voice your support.

http://www.nelp.org/page/-/UI/2011/Fair_Employ_Oppty_Act_2011.pdf?nocdn=1

A Boomer Business That’s Going Places

Good morning Boomers,

The latest addition to the Re-Invention Connection comes from Doris Gallan and Jacob Frank.  These Baby Boomers have pretty much seen and done what most others only dream about.  They gave up the corporate world for adventure and new experiences.  They traveled the world and along the way they found a way to turn their passion for adventure and new experiences into a business helping others explore the joys of travel with fewer hassles or headaches.      

Gallan & Frank, Baby Boomers Traveling

Doris Gallan (born 1959) and Jacob Frank (1955) are Baby Boomers who are living the dream: they quit the rat race to pursue their life-long passion of traveling.  The two left their corporate jobs suffering from burn out and in great need of something vastly different.  Doris had been Director of External Relations for the University of Southern California while Jacob was Senior Project Manager at Southern California Edison working in corporate communications.

They sold their Los Angeles-area home and everything they owned to travel the world.  The couple’s friends and family probably had more difficulty believing Doris and Jacob were selling their first home and 23 years of accumulated goods.  But for the two would-be wanderers, the excitement of going on a two-year round-the-world trip made all the preparations mainly pain-free.

The scariest part of the experience was leaving well-paying, secure jobs knowing the country was about to enter into a recession.  But they didn’t want to take leaves of absence as both knew they wouldn’t return to the same lifestyle following what the couple knew would be a life-changing journey.  Selling their house and using the money to fund their travels also meant the two Boomers wouldn’t be able to afford to re-enter the real estate market unless prices fell considerably.

The couple decided that they had enough things to think about to keep them busy with the world trip and that they wouldn’t worry about their return until later.  So they began their nomadic lifestyle in 2006 visiting all seven continents and 50+ countries and are still going five years later.

Finding little Boomer-specific information and travel services to assist in the planning and booking of their trip, the two did their own research, sketching out their journey a few months in advance.  They booked their two-year ’Round-The-World (RTW) trips themselves learning from their mistakes, other travelers, and industry professionals.

Along the way, they met many other traveling Boomers who asked for help in planning their journeys and so their coaching and consulting business—Baby Boomers Traveling—was conceived.

After 26 months of continuous travel, the couple decided it was time to settle down (sort of) but they weren’t ready to come home as the recession was raging.  Jacob became certified as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) by attending a four-week, intensive course in San Jose, Costa Rica.  He found that there were many such classes offered throughout the USA and abroad.  He looked for a school that was certified by an international organization and chose to study in a foreign country as it would be less expensive than doing so in the United States.  As he had hoped, the school later employed Jacob as a teacher of English.  He also taught in Mexico and China.

Countries and schools differ in what they require in terms of credentials for English teachers and this would determine where we would live.  As many nations won’t furnish visas for teachers without a university degree, Jacob was somewhat limited in the number of countries he was eligible to apply to.  Developed countries such as Japan, Korea and almost all of Europe require university degrees while less developed nations do not.

The couple found life abroad to be very interesting as well as much less expensive than at home.  Living in Mexico and Costa Rica was relatively easy as both countries have many similarities with the United States and Canada where the two had lived before.  Also, Doris is fluent in Spanish and could manage quite well shopping, dealing with service people, and socializing.  That’s not to say there weren’t a good number of inexplicable incidents that had strangers shaking their heads about her Spanish or things she was doing!

China, on the other hand, was a whole different story.  Even though the two tried their best to learn the local Mandarin dialect they never got much further than learning to say a few polite words and “waiter, the bill please;” “a cold beer, please;” and “a box to take my food home.”  Doris did improve her pantomime skills considerably as she managed to do all her shopping—including miming washing dishes so she could buy a dish drainer—without more than a few words of Mandarin and a big smile.

Living abroad is an enriching experience that leads to a deeper appreciation of what we have when we return home, according to Doris.  The Boomer couple recommends the experience to anyone with a curiosity about the world, a love of culture, an interest in people, and an open mind about how things “ought to be done”.

There were so many “learning experiences” that Doris started compiling them in a weekly blog she named “This Expat Life”.  It dealt with everything from reading all-Mandarin food labels in Chinese grocery stores to volunteering while living abroad.  Creating the opportunity to live in another country—or, in this case, three countries—was the perfect solution to the question “What do we do when we finish the ‘round the world trip?”

So many Baby Boomers wrote Doris asking for advice about living abroad—much as they had earlier about traveling—that she began her coaching and consulting business to help others do the same.  While not everyone may be interested in traveling or living the way they did, Doris has a great depth and breadth of knowledge of most styles of foreign experiences.  Her advice is contained in The Boomers’ Guide to Going Abroad to Travel * Live * Give * Learn (which deals with what to expect when in another country whether on a trip, as an expat, as a volunteer or to study.

Having written a series of blogs—which are much like on-line journals—for several years, Doris already possessed the beginnings of her book.  She had her daily travel tips that had been e-mailed religiously for close to a year; many stories from her two weekly blogs (This Expat Life and Baby Boomers Traveling); and knew from the many questions she’d been asked over the years what were travelers’ most important concerns.   Doris researched the publishing industry as well as self-publishing options and decided to join an author coaching program that would help her through the process.

Living abroad and its lower cost of living permitted Doris to work at establishing her business (Doris Gallan LLC) and her brand (Baby Boomers Traveling).  As hers is a virtual business, she was able to do the work while in Mexico, Costa Rica and China.  Working with an international team, she created a series of websites to promote herself as an author (www.DorisGallan.com) and as an expert in traveling Baby Boomers (www.BabyBoomersTraveling.com).

She also developed her expertise as a social marketer by establishing herself on Twitter as BoomerTraveling (1,750 followers), Facebook Doris Gallan (1,600 friends), Facebook Baby Boomers Traveling (425 fans/likes) and LinkedIn Doris Gallan (680 connections) and continues to build her readership through these social networking tools.

Doris has since written a series of Insider Digests filled with travel tips specifically for Boomers.  She continues coaching Boomers on their travels, writing blogs, as well as writing as a guest blogger on Boomer and travel sites.

Daily travel tips and our latest newsletter Baby Boomers Traveling Weekly Digest are available and subscribers receive the Top Ten Travel Secrets Free when they sign up.

The Baby Boomers Traveling team has made presentations to industry leaders on the needs of Boomers and to groups of travelers interested in learning more about how they can take charge of their own journeys.

Doris and Jacob share their expertise with individuals, corporations, professional groups, and nonprofit organizations through speaking engagements geared toward the needs of Boomers at this stage of their lives.  They bring several decades of experience as consultants to their seminars and workshops. Doris received her MBA from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University (2000) with concentrations in Strategic Planning and Marketing.

Anyone with questions about any of the above is invited to write Jacob and Doris at admin@dorisgallan.com

Boomers Mean Business

Some 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65 every day for nearly the next two decades.  Wow!  What an opportunity for business.  All of those aging Boomers will need lots of products and services.  Some Boomers will become entrepreneurs.  We will share some of their stories through The Re-Invention Connection.  Watch for their stories here or at www.myboomer2boomer.com. 

The majority of Baby Boomers are not yet retirement age and will likely continue to seek employment.  Yet all too many have already been effectively retired due to attitudes about their value to businesses as employees.  We have cited the statistics, we have debunked the negative perceptions and inaccurate stereotypes.  Yet the struggle continues and the situation is not much improved.  

Baby Boomers are not alone in the struggle to secure employment as the economy stubbornly fails to add enough new jobs.  Businesses continue to stall as too few buyers purchase their products and services.  Adding more jobs will require growing demand but can that occur while the largest generation continues to suffer very long-term unemployment, while ageism continues to grow in the workplace? 

Marketer’s have always loved Baby Boomers because of their purchasing power. Businesses continue to create and market products and services of interest to us because statistics show our households each spend an average of $10,000 more per year than any other age group. 

Yet, surprisingly, today’s businesses somehow think Boomer buying habits are sustainable even as they are seen as less desirable employees. Long-term, pervasive Boomer joblessness continues to negatively impact the discretionary spending habits of the largest, most consistent group of über spenders in the marketplace. It’s scary that businesses cannot see the connection.

We believe that Boomers can help change this by actively seeking out and supporting companies that actively recruit and hire Boomers. What if millions of Baby Boomers supported such Boomer Friendly business’s with their purchasing power?  Those businesses would not only survive, they would thrive and grow to create more jobs which would help every generation.  

We will continue to search for and highlight Boomer Friendly businesses at www.myboomer2boomer.com so you can support them with your purchasing power. Money is the lifeblood of any business. They need it and Boomers have it. But if no one will hire Boomers, it won’t be long before Boomers have nothing left to spend.

If you are an employer, hire some Boomers.  Gain the benefit of their experience, their work ethic, their skills, their knowledge.  Gain the benefits of growing the purchasing power of the largest generation of consumers.

If you are a Boomer, become a smarter consumer by seeking out and supporting Boomer Friendly Businesses.  Ask if they actively recruit and hire Boomers.  You might not like the answer – yet. But if you don’t ask, they won’t understand that Boomers are watching, that Boomers are still the best market they have, and that Boomers mean business – in more ways than one.

A Re-Invention Connection

Good morning Boomers,

I caught an interview with the First Lady on the Today show this morning as she was talking about the need to constantly re-tool, re-educate, re-invent.  She commented that the jobs we used to do aren’t coming back.  

Springsteen said the same thing years ago.  The employment landscape has long been changing.  Ask those whose jobs were impacted by that “giant sucking sound” when Nafta changed their world.  The only thing that’s new are the many sales, service and administration jobs that have now disappeared too.  

We can wail and gnash about how horrible big business is – how they have ruined the country by going elsewhere to produce the low-cost products that we all want to buy – or we can get to our local community college, start a business, morph into something new, or recycle the old.

All very serious stuff and perhaps daunting.  While we know that we need to change to become what employers want and need today, the question for many is “What do they want?”  Even if we all discover the answer and get retrained, there still will not be enough jobs for everyone who wants one.   

We need innovation, new inventions, and new ideas. We need entrepreneurs.  Although some may find the research surprising, the group that continues to start the most new businesses, that continues to be at the forefront of innovation and invention is Baby Boomers.

So for all of you Boomers who remain unemployed, who haven’t found an employer who wants what you have to offer, perhaps the question you should be asking is “What will someone buy from me?”  

Think about what you can do that would be valuable to someone who is older, to someone who is busier, to someone who lives too far away from loved ones to help them, or to someone who wants to stay informed, stay involved, stay connected.  

Perhaps for some Boomers, the answer will lie within.  The largest “problem” as we continually hear it is the vast ocean of aging Baby Boomers.  Let’s face it.  As we grow older we are going to need help doing all kinds of things.

We will demand innovation because we always have.  We will want what is new and what is better because… well… because we are Baby Boomers.  Why would we change now?    

From transportation to housing options, from home maintenance to housekeeping, from health care to pet care, we will want and need it all.  The list is almost endless.  So are the opportunities.

We will expect these services and options to be cost-effective and widely available.  Think of the number of entrepreneurs we will require to service all 76 million of us as we grow old, then older.  We have just begun to turn 65.  We will continue to turn 65 for the next 18 years.  The opportunities for entrepreneurs are enormous.

Think about services that you can provide and that will appeal to the growing group of older Americans who will want or will need help with a wide variety of tasks.   Think about innovative products and services that will help us stay fit, active, independent and engaged as we age. Discover how you can recycle yourself to appeal to your massive, ageing generation.  

We are creating a “Re-Invention Connection” for Boomer entrepreneurs to share their stories with other Baby Boomers.  To participate, use the contact form found on our website ( www.myboomer2boomer.com). 

We will highlight some stories of innovative Baby Boomer Entrepreneurs and profile some businesses on our website which is designed to showcase Boomer Entrepreneurs and to help Baby Boomers find Boomer Friendly employers, products, and services.   

In the meantime, here is a video of one gray-haired Baby Boomer successfully recycling. Enjoy!  http://dalesdesigns.net/rock-on.htm

Older Workers DO NOT:

Hello Boomers,

As we all know, this recession has been very hard on older workers.  Unemployed older workers (Baby Boomers) continue to find few who will rehire them – largely due to negative and false stereotypes.  

If you ask any 30 something hiring manager about the pros and cons of hiring an older worker, you will likely hear that they are dependable, loyal, have a great work ethic, etc. 

Those same 30 something hiring managers will also likely say they cost too much in health care and salary, produce less than a younger worker, are easily bored and disengaged from the work process, are unwilling to learn, etc.   

We have argued against these unfair and inaccurate stereotypes but our arguments have largely been ignored.  Hence the 99’ers – many of whom are Baby Boomers. Now Knowledge@Wharton provides a fairly comprehensive look at the negative perceptions and the corresponding realities.  Some of their key findings include:

Older workers DO NOT cost more in terms of health care.  They may take longer to recover from an injury but they take fewer sick days than younger workers.  Health care costs can actually be lower for older workers who have fewer dependents and become Medicare eligible at 65, further reducing employer costs. 

Older workers ARE NOT less productive than younger workers.  According to Peter Cappelli of the Wharton Center for Human Resources, older workers have superior interpersonal skills, deal better with customers, have less turnover and less absenteeism.  In his words, “The evidence is unbelievably huge.  Basically, older workers perform better on just about everything.”  So is better performance, more experience, and greater knowledge that older workers bring to fill your business needs worth a higher salary? 

Older workers DO NOT lose interest in their jobs.  According to the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, those who work past retirement age become more engaged and satisfied with their jobs.

Older workers DO NOT resist learning new things.   The Sloan Center found that older workers ranked a challenging job and learning new things as top sources of job satisfaction.  

So Wharton has once again shown that hiring an older worker is good for business.  But there is another widely circulated opinion that believes if Baby Boomers retire there will be more jobs for younger workers.  But many Baby Boomers cannot afford to retire.  Aside from the long reign of unemployment, there are other reasons beyond excessive spending that have caused many Baby Boomers to be severely short of retirement savings.     

Baby Boomers entered the work force during a time when retirement funding was derived from a “three-legged stool”.  The first leg was an employer sponsored defined benefit pension plan.  The second leg was our own savings and the third leg was Social Security. 

When defined benefit pension plans were largely abandoned by employers in favor of the much less costly 401K match, the first leg of the stool was severely threatened.  Most employers now provide only a small percentage of retirement income with workers providing the rest via pretax contributions.  For older Boomers like those turning 65 in 2011, this striking policy change occurred mid-career or later.   

Retirement and savings trajectories were greatly impacted as the second leg of the stool, personal savings, was strained by the need to also self-fund most of the first leg.  Since most employers didn’t increase wages as they abandoned defined benefit pensions, paychecks had to stretch to include more savings.  

While the ability to save pre-tax helped, the fact that our funds became largely unavailable for years caused us to prioritize as we raised families, funded college degrees, paid mortgages and helped aging parents and grown children.  We didn’t always save the maximum and my guess is that many younger workers are falling into this pattern too for similar reasons.

Personal savings portfolios and 401K plans are often largely tied to the fortunes of the stock market.  Two major meltdowns since 2000 have decimated Baby Boomer retirement savings and they have little time left to make up the losses. 

The third leg of the retirement stool is Social Security.  It is under attack and no one knows what it will look like 5, 10 or 15 years from now.  We all know that taxes will need to rise to adequately fund it for the present, let alone the future.  Asking it to do more sooner is not the solution and asking Baby Boomers to retire early won’t create more opportunities for younger workers.  In fact, it will do just the opposite.     

According to Wharton insurance and risk management professor Olivia S. Mitchell, countries with policies that encourage people to retire at a younger age actually damage younger workers because the retired rely upon pension dollars (Social Security) funded by taxes.  More retired citizens means higher taxes to pay increasing pension liabilities.  Higher taxes cause companies to keep wages low and cut back on hiring.    Workers facing low wages and high taxes spend less and save less, stifling economic growth.  It is as Ben Bernanke calls it, “An invirtuous cycle.”

So what is the solution?  Give older workers the opportunity to stay in the workforce as long as they can, as long as they want.  This will not take jobs from younger workers but will instead help drive our economy through increased savings, lower costs for pension liabilities not yet claimed, and rising demand for goods and services.  

If older workers DO NOT earn, older workers DO NOT buy.  Don’t create a huge generation of unproductive, non-purchasing consumers any earlier than their health and their abilities require.  Hire a Baby Boomer.  It’s good for your business and it’s good for our economy.

You can read more about the Knowledge@Wharton study at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2644

“Acceptable” Discrimination?

Hello Boomers,

The New Year is well underway and our national hopes for economic recovery are on the uptick.  Yet unemployment remains stubbornly high.  The good news is that our leaders seem to have finally “gotten it” and sound as though they will now concentrate on finding ways to help increase job opportunities.  Our hopes and our prayers are with them. 

But perhaps our hopes and prayers are not enough.  Perhaps more needs to be done.  Perhaps we need to right a wrong, to become intolerant of “business as usual”  when that has cost far too many far too much for far too long.   

We often hear from business leaders that they have a tough time finding qualified candidates to fill their job openings.  We know that is a problem and the process of finding qualified candidates takes time, uses resources, and is expensive.  

Businesses often advertise in multiple arenas to find qualified candidates.  Of course this elicits many responses so employers need to screen and narrow the field of applicants.  While conscientious candidates apply for jobs that are a close match, many postings still gather far too many unqualified job seekers.   The attitude that “Employers will never find their “perfect” candidate so why not apply?” creates an avalanche of very marginal, if not useless resumes that must still be scanned by the employer.  

Such resume spam has helped create many of the very issues that  job seekers complain about most:  recruiters who don’t call back, resume  “black holes” where no one  even acknowledges you applied, hiring managers who don’t call back after a seemingly positive interview, key-word searches that eliminate resumes that don’t include the “right” words, etc., etc., etc.

Employers have necessarily adopted ways to hone an unwieldy process.  But somewhere along the way many employers began eliminating whole categories of people who might perfectly fill the needs of the organization, who might have all of the required skills and experience, who might even solve the very problems the employer is seeking to address.       

“The Unemployed Need Not Apply” position is still taken by far too many employers.  The situation hasn’t improved much and the attitude is perhaps even more overt than it was a few months back when there was a huge outcry about this practice, when people wrote and called their elected representatives, when they signed petitions and outed companies for such maneuvers.  The only piece of that story that seems to have survived until today is that far too many employers continue to eliminate the unemployed when seeking to fill open positions.    

This practice is not based upon lack of qualifications, experience, or education, all things over which the candidate has some control.   It is based upon lack of employment over which, in this economic downturn, candidates have had little control.  It is blatant discrimination, perhaps one of the few types that we still tolerate in this country. 

After three plus years of unrelenting unemployment, it is unconscionable that  “The Unemployed Need Not Apply” attitude is still pervasive in corporate America.  Even with recent government incentives for hiring the unemployed, it appears that more needs to be done to stop this practice.  

Moving forward, we will almost certainly see more help for businesses in the form of tax breaks, incentives, etc., to help them create the jobs that we need.  Let’s attach some strings to those incentives by requiring businesses to hire the unemployed.  As a taxpayer, I have no problem supporting business growth through incentives during this tough time – as long as businesses support taxpayers by removing people from the unemployment and welfare rolls, by giving them jobs so they can pay taxes too. 

For a short time, just long enough to get our unemployment numbers down to more moderate levels and reduce the burden on our states, just long enough to stop the housing foreclosure frenzy, just long enough to increase tax revenues to help local, state and federal governments pay their bills and stop borrowing,  just long enough to get many of our families, our cities, states and our country’s finances on more solid ground,  wouldn’t it be nice if more businesses conveyed the attitude that “The Unemployed Are Welcome Here”?  Our hopes and our prayers would sure be with them.

Killing The Golden Goose

Hello Boomers,

Tis the season to be thankful for all of our blessings and many of us are truly blessed.  Blessed with health, family and friends.  Blessed to have a job, to be able to pay the bills, perhaps to save for our futures and to take care of our families. 

But many Baby Boomers are not feeling very blessed this year.  In September, the U. S. Census Bureau released data showing that many more in the 55 to 64 age group have fallen into poverty.  In 2007, the rate among this group was 8.6%.  That number has now risen to 9.4%.  

While the rise may not seem too severe in an economy that has been absolutely brutal in terms of job losses for the same age group, we need to put it into perspective.

All across the country, unemployed Baby Boomers have tapped into their retirement nest eggs to make ends meet.  Many have tapped into their home equity too. For all too many, the funds that were earmarked for retirement have been depleted early to pay the bills, to help mom, dad or the kids. 

So very many have held off the worst for a very long time by trading their future security to pay for today’s obligations.  But they are fast approaching the depletion of their assets  and may soon also fall into poverty as the jobs picture fails to improve soon enough to save them from financial ruin.

While large numbers of those over 50 continue to struggle to find jobs, our economy continues to sputter.  There is a direct connection between consumer confidence and the employment outlook.  Perhaps for no other generation is the correlation so key to our economic recovery as it is in the Baby Boomer generation.

Boomers represent the largest number of the long-term unemployed.  Surveys show that the biggest fear of employed Boomers is losing a job and not being able to find another.   As the largest generation in terms of size and purchasing power, it should come as no surprise that our economy continues to struggle as Baby Boomers struggle with employment issues.  

When 78 million consumers pull back, when they fear they may lose their jobs and won’t be able to get another, when they are unemployed long-term and cannot find a job, they stop buying which cripples job growth and economic recovery. 

While Baby Boomers won’t always be the drivers of our economy, they have been for many years.  They likely would have continued their pattern of consumption  for at least another 20 years.  But ageism is alive and growing.  Baby Boomers have seen their employment future and it looks bleak. 

It is unfortunate that employers haven’t discovered that hiring a Baby Boomer is good for business, good for our economy.    It is unfortunate that the largest spenders have now become justifiably scared, very cautious, and unlikely to go back to their former consuming ways.

Perhaps in its zeal to cut labor costs, American Business has inadvertently killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.  Even an abrupt change of heart in the hiring arena likely won’t be enough to revive that goose because now many of the 78 million American Baby Boomers have much to make up and little time to do it.  Those who have remained employed are eager to protect what they have so will spend far less.

The recession has been brutal for many but Baby Boomers have seen their financial security devastated and have watched as a bright future disappeared.  As consumers, 78 million U. S. Baby Boomers are unlikely to help drive our economy back to health any time soon.  And for that, none of us should be thankful.

A Random Act of Culture We Will Never Forget

Hello Boomers,

This Thanksgiving may be difficult for many as our economy continues to slash jobs, as unemployment compensation dries up for those out of work the longest, and as prospective employers remain skittish about adding staff.

Surveys indicate that many will spend even less this holiday season as they struggle to make ends meet.  And that may make some feel even worse as they cannot give what they think they should be able to give to their families.

But there are many ways to give to others.  Ways that don’t cost much.  Ways that don’t cost anything. 

A hug.  A smile.  A kind word.  An act of kindness.  Even a random act of culture which is what happened at Macy’s in Philadelphia when many area groups converged to provide a reminder of “the reason for the season”.

This “event” is one of the most beautiful things we have ever witnessed.  It certainly puts “giving” in perspective. 

Watch the faces of the surprised and delighted shoppers as the many talented and enthusiastic singers give a performance that inspires. 

Watch as the shoppers, busy seeking material goods suspend their search to watch, to listen, and to experience the spiritual good.  

See if it doesn’t make you feel better too.  And thanks to Macy’s for letting this cultural and spiritual gift take center stage for a while during one shopping day before Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU&feature=player_embedded

What Has Been Lost

Good morning Boomers!

For many in our generation, the last several years have been very difficult.  Lost jobs, drastic income reductions, plummeting home values, the list goes on and on.

Nearly every Baby Boomer knows someone who was, or is in the unemployment line.  Many for far longer than they ever imagined, ever wanted, despite what some of our elected officials believe about the unemployed.

But this morning I read an article that talked about some of the other things lost by many of the unemployed.  Things like laughter and joy.  Things like hopes and dreams.  Things like plans for the future.

Being unemployed is tough.  Being unemployed for a long time is brutal.  Over time, your self-esteem may drop.  Your confidence may begin to wane.  Your belief in your own abilities can become shaky.

Often the lives of the desperately unemployed become filled only with the mechanics of job seeking.  The endless hours spent looking and applying.  The constant resume rewriting and tweaking.  The untold calls to friends, relatives, mere acquaintances who may know someone who knows someone….

As the days, the weeks, the months drag on the mental stress and strain begin to take their toll.  This is a mission, perhaps a war, and it becomes your life.  Find a job.  Find a job.  Find a job.

Apply for one, interview for one, perhaps interview again.  Follow up.  Wait.  Wait some more.  Then you finally hear that you were not the selected candidate.  Or you don’t hear anything at all – ever. 

You begin anew.  The cycle goes on and on and on. The longer it lasts, the more confidence you lose, the less able you feel, perhaps the more guilt ridden you become.  You feel like you are letting your family down.  They rely on you to contribute and you haven’t done that for quite a while.

Often your own family or your friends can add to the feelings of inadequacy.  Even when not meant to be hurtful, the clumsy or inconsiderate comments made by loved ones are often the knives that sink the deepest. 

So take care of yourselves.  Don’t let the process become your life.  Spend some time doing things for yourself.  Take a class.  Learn a new skill.  Revisit that old hobby that you haven’t had time for in years.  Take a walk.  Listen to some music.  And don’t stop making plans for your future.

We humans have always planned for the future.  Sometimes He says “Ha!” and we find ourselves taking a major detour from our plans.  Unemployment is a detour on your path.  It has caused a delay.  It has pushed you back, made you start over, perhaps sent you in a new direction.

The road may be bumpy, the travel much slower.  But the view that is different can be the most interesting, the most memorable, the most enriching if we take the time to see it, to appreciate it, even to enjoy it.      

So take the time to laugh, to love, to find joy wherever you can while on this life detour.  Enjoy your family and your friends.  Stay social.  Stay informed.  Stay involved.  And make plans for the future.

No Longer Qualified

Good morning Boomers.

I read an article this morning that made me think about the plight of so many in our country during this time of stubborn unemployment.  Recently the number of available jobs has risen yet unemployment remains stuck.    

Not long ago we heard that there were at least 6 qualified applicants for every job opening.  That number has now shrunk to 4.6 according to the article and that is good news.  Yet we still hear employers say that they cannot find qualified applicants. 

While some of the difficulty in filling open positions may be tied to geography (qualified applicants don’t live where the jobs are), why do employers have such a difficult time finding their next hires when there are still so many looking for work?    

It would seem that during recent years, the flood of corporate downsizings has allowed employers to persuade employees to do the proverbial “more with less”.  Essentially, to keep your job you had to be willing and able to do 1.5 or maybe even 2 jobs. 

For many, the professional growth opportunities were intoxicating and they eagerly accepted more responsibility and embraced  “on the job” learning opportunities. For others, the many choices available in a robust economy enabled them to leave for greener pastures and whatever gains that a job switch delivered.

Work harder, learn more, leave.  Employees had choices.  When the bottom fell out of the economy many of the choices dried up.  Fewer choices for employees meant more power for employers and for the past few years they have asked their employees to do much more with far less.  

Now that things are slowly beginning to improve, the proverbial greener pastures may once again loom on the distant horizon and employers are beginning to add staff.  That would seem to be good news for the unemployed. But is it?

Jobs have changed.  More work is accomplished by fewer people.  The knowledge and skills required to do today’s jobs have also changed and each employee must be able to do more, perhaps much more than before.  That requires expanded skills and new knowledge.  

The article I read this morning made the point quite bluntly.  Most people who have been unemployed for a while are no longer qualified to do the job they lost.  And the writer wasn’t talking just about Boomers.  She wasn’t talking just about older workers, nor just about one subset or class of workers.  She didn’t mean just those without education, without specific skills, without relevant experience. 

The writer specifically meant that MOST everyone who has been sitting it out for a while has fallen behind.  Many of the long-term unemployed are no longer qualified to do their old jobs.  Why?  Because the job has grown and they have not.  They no longer possess the skills or knowledge necessary to do what is expected, to produce what is required.   This is not just a Boomer issue and it doesn’t keep just older workers sidelined.

If you have been unemployed for a year or more, things have likely changed – a lot.  Have you?  Have you kept your skills up to date?  Have you learned new ones?  When you read a job description do you find yourself falling short on many of the required competencies?  Do employers seem to be asking for the sun, the moon, and the stars too?

Perhaps employers really are asking for the impossible but when things are as bad as they have been recently, they are going to ask.  Not because they want to keep you out.  They ask because that is what they perceive they need to stay competitive, to survive, to keep the doors open, to meet payroll, to make a profit.

So perhaps it is time to brush up your skills, to reinvent yourself a bit.  Take a class.  Learn a new piece of software.  Get a certificate.  Have a compelling story to tell when they ask, “So what have you been doing while unemployed?”

It is no longer enough to say that you have spent all of your time looking for a job because the job you have been looking for has likely disappeared.  The job may still carry the same name but it will likely require more skills, more knowledge, more competency.  Your old job has changed.  Have you?

For on-line educational information and some local +50 education initiatives, please visit http://www.myboomer2boomer.com/education.html to find some great resources.  Or call your local community college to see what they have to offer.

If you need to update your technology skills, visit http://www.myboomer2boomer.com/techtraining.html for some great tools and resources that will help you get or stay current with today’s business tools.