Brutal Job Search Reality for Older Americans Who Are Out of Work

[jamesbond]

Even though this video is a couple of years old, it still holds true for today that older workers are having an incredibly hard time finding jobs in America.

[Zambales]

Particular hard for one of them. How many jobs did he apply for? 481? And he's still unemployed.

He should have woken up ages ago and stopped relying on someone else for a job. I predicted these kind of scenario's would happen for people approaching middle age about fifteen years ago when I was still in my early thirties. I acted accordingly and a plan was formed.

[Adama]

And in other reports they are saying that it is the young people who are just graduating that are hardest hit. Not that it matters, but I think it is hard for everybody. For the young people, most were duped and deceived into taking out massive student loans, to get jobs that don't pay that much; or when they get into the job place, they realize those jobs aren't even worth it.

Most jobs aren't worth working anyways, because just to get those few dollars, they're likely to insult your intelligence, ask you to do things that are impossible, threaten to fire you over minor things; and when they add further burdens to you, and you tell them there's no time already, they'll tell you that you better be appreciative not to be on the street and to have a job. And don't ask for any time off for a vacation. And if it snows, they are going to block the doors and threaten to fire you if you dare leave, because they own you, and you're going to sleep there to work the next day, so they can have enough people working, and so you can't call out due to poor driving conditions.

And expect them to laugh at you and look for little reasons to fire you, and threaten your future ability to work elsewhere, because you stood up for yourself at some point.

[CannedHam]

I am a huge advocate for saving as much as possible while one is in their 20s, 30s, and 40s for this very reason, especially in age-dependent fields like technology. I personally think everyone should have enough savings so they could live on a fraction of their salary by the time they hit 50.

I work in the tech sector and it's kind of an interesting situation. Older employees are a lot more expensive (sometimes 3-4x that of a fresh college grad), but only in some cases, does their productivity match the higher salary. Those that "coast" and let themselves go once they hit their high earning years are usually are the first to get let go during downturns. They often struggle to find another job at a comparable salary since their skills have deteriorated, they have large salary demands etc. and end up with serious financial problems if they are forced to take a major pay cut.

One guy applied to our company in his mid-50s who worked as a developer at a large company for over 25 years. We had to pass on him, as he was behind the times, asked for a salary way out of line for a company of our small size, and came off as belligerent and entitled af. We would've hired him at half his asking pay, but we figured it wasn't even worth wasting our time. And not all older employees are like this - our R&D VP still presents at conferences in his 50s, is aware of the latest trends in engineering, keeps up with dozens of blogs, etc.