Over Fifty and Out of Work

One week ago I posted Over Fifty and Out of Work – The Data and by Wednesday my website lit up like a Christmas tree!

I posted two graphs from the Over Fifty and Out of Work website. Click on the images to display the images full size.

I received over 50 comments on the blog, various LinkedIn groups and Facebook. The comments fell into some pretty simple categories.

What is the government going to do?

In my opinion there is very little the government can do at this point. There is age discrimination. By the way, there is age discrimination at both ends of the spectrum.

• The very young fresh out of college cannot find work because of lack of experience
• The 60+ have been hit especially hard by long term unemployment for a variety of reasons

What do you think the government can do?

My skills are outstanding but…

I had a lot of comments about their experience being under valued. With experience comes wisdom and unfortunately, wisdom is something that is tough to quantify on a resume.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how to do this!

I received several comments from techies who had all of the right skill sets but were not getting hired. Several more commented that they were acquiring the latest skills, but by the time they complete the training and get some experience they were already out of date.

I believe as the economy continues to improve that your experience will be valued again.

I am working but struggling

What is very common is the long term unemployed take survival jobs. I developed a survey for our local job club back in 2006, and what we discovered was those that took survival jobs typically stopped looking.

It takes real discipline to keep a job search going while working a survival job. It can be done!

There is a happy ending

I received quite a few comments that they had landed. I believe the answer for many will be self employment.

This might be contract work. I have several former clients who are working contract project manager assignments and are quite happy. They have concluded they can take these 6-12 month contracts, make good money and be happy. They have concluded that having a few months between contracts is just fine. They have made a shift in their attitude away full time employment and becoming a free agent.

It might being buying a business with your IRA. You would be surprised how common this might be happening.

Entrepreneurship among baby boomers is at an all time high. Even AARP is behind this movement!

Check out this Kaufman Foundation report called The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom.

What do you think? Are you ready to be a free agent?

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You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Baby Boomers and the Great Reset

The Great Recession has ended. The Great Reset is still here!

I started to blog on Baby Boomers and Long Term Unemployment several weeks ago as a way to prepare for a presentation I will be giving to Career Development Network luncheon on April 25th.

This is the final post of the series. I highly recommend you read the entire series:

• Baby Boomers and the Long Term Unemployed
• Are Baby Boomers Destined for Long Term Unemployment?
• Over 50 and long term unemployment – What do you do?
• Over 50 and Long Term Unemployment – Next Steps
• Over Fifty and Out of Work – The People [Video]
• Over Fifty and Out of Work – The Data

The further along I got in writing this series, the more difficult it was to continue writing. This is depressing!

It became very clear to me that we are going through a Great Reset. The Great Reset: How the Post-Crash Economy Will Change the Way We Live and Work is a book written by Richard Florida.

We are going through a fundamental shift in the economy, and it will be painful, especially for baby boomers.

Richard Florida asserts that work will fundamentally sort into two types of jobs that are growing in size and salary:

• Creative class jobs
• Routine service jobs

The middle skills jobs, which fundamentally fueled the middle class in America have largely been replaced by automation. When did you last talk to a gate agent at an airport or a teller in a bank? This is the fundamental core of the Great Reset.

The Challenge

The challenge most baby boomers will face is the pace of this shift is not going to slow down. If anything it will continue to accelerate.

The image of many have of baby boomers is we will not adapt. We are set in our ways.

Is this a true reflection of our generation?

What do you think?

The Great Reset in hindsight could be seen coming. I know I saw it coming and did nothing. Most of us did the same.

Will you become part of the creative class or will you be part of the population delivering routine service?

It appears to be the time to develop a Plan B.

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Over Fifty and Out of Work

In doing my research on Baby Boomers and the Long Term Unemployed I found a project called Over Fifty and Out of Work.

In my last post, Over Fifty and Out of Work – The People [Video] I wrote about three individuals who’s stories were especially compelling but unfortunately were fairly typical.

1. Woman who retired early to take care of a dying parent. When she tried to re-enter the workforce after several years she can not get a full time job.
2. A man who was in technology, but had been laid off. He did not fit in any of the clearly defined boxes that companies were looking for in their employees. He was considering retirement.
3. An entrepreneur who was wiped out in the Great Recession. He is looking for a job for the first time in many years. No one is interested in hiring him. He has always worked for himself.

If you have not read my last post please do it now.

Long Term Unemployment – How bad is it?

I pulled the chart below for the Over Fifty and Out of Work website.

As you can see the average duration of unemployment for workers over 55 has always been longer than the general population.

The tragedy is after the recession ends the average length of unemployment peaks for the Over Fifty and Out of Work at 60 weeks. Remember this is the average!

The saving grace is the over 50 have the lowest unemployment rate as can be seen by the chart below.

The downside is the unemployment rate for over 50 workers has not decreased like the general workforce after the recession ended.

Over Fifty and Out of Work AND Continue to be Out of Work

The Over Fifty and Out of Work demographic has not recovered like everyone else!

Why?

Age discrimination?

Technology?

Changing Job Skills?

Flattening of Corporate Hierarchies?

Health Care Concerns?

What I think is –>  All of the above!

What do you think?

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Over Fifty and Out of Work

In doing my research on Baby Boomers and the Long Term Unemployed I found a project called Over Fifty and Out of Work.

They describe the reason behind the project as:

“After the Great Recession, older Americans are out of work at record rates and for longer periods of time than ever before. Boomers, who  began turning 65 last year, were born into a postwar era of prosperity and optimism., but the economic downturn and its aftermath upset the expectations held by many members of this iconic generation. Today’s unemployed boomers anticipate living longer than prior generations, but are not well prepared to do so. As their needs escalate, government at all levels is cutting back on programs and services to reduce budget deficits, while globalization races ahead.”

Below is the opening video. (This video will not play on Apple iPad or iPhones. All of the other videos will play properly.)

The People

The project tells the stories of one hundred people who are Over Fifty and Out of Work. I would like to share three of them with you.

Marie Spalding

Marie is in a situation that I am seeing far more frequently. Marie left her job and took early retirement as a school counselor in order to be able to take care of an ailing parent. After her parent passed away, she has tried to re-enter the job market.

I am meeting lots of Baby Boomers, also known as the sandwich generation, who have left their jobs to take care of their parents in their final years. In Marie’s case she finds it difficult if not impossible to live on her meager pension.

Watch and listen carefully to Marie’s story of being Over Fifty and Out of Work!

Ken Wadland

Ken has been in the software industry for over 30 years. Ken passion is solving puzzles. Large corporations have paid him a lot of money to solve large problems. Now he is starting to consider retirement.

He has done a number things right:

• He has started a company that he can list on his resume. He has no clients, but he has a company.
• He understands that he needs to attend job clubs, and similar organizations to keep is moral up. He knows that companies hire happy people.

His big challenge is defining what he does. Like many of the readers of this blog, he does not neatly fit inside the box of what employers are looking for today.

Watch and listen to Ken’s story of being Over Fifty and Out of Work

Rich Galipeau

Rich was the first of his family to go to college. He started his own business and successfully sold it. He was a true success story. He moved to Florida where he invested in real estate and a staffing company. He says at the end of the video “It was the American Dream, and now it is the American Nightmare“.

Watch and listen to Rich’s story of being Over Fifty and Out of Work.

I know these videos can be hard to watch. Please take a moment to watch more of the 100 stories at the Over Fifty and Out of Work video page.

My next post will cover some of the data behind this issue.

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist

Volunteer and other activities

When you are long term unemployed you have to be involved in activities that:

• Build your self esteem
• Build on your brand image
• Create a portfolio of your life work
• Improve your marketable skills

Volunteer for a Cause

Nothing will build self esteem more than volunteering for a non-profit that delivers programs or services for a cause the you care about.

As part of Launch Pad Job Club, which I have served on the board of directors for over six years, we have created a program called Leap to Success. This program does short term projects for non-profits.

You can do the same.

If you are a marketing person, offer to do a marketing campaign for a non-profit.

If you are an operations person, check out the local food bank or Habitat for Humanity or ….

If you are a financial person check out a local micro lender. (We have multiple of these in Central Texas, including PeopleFund and Accion, where they make micro-loans to typically minority owned small businesses who cannot qualify for regular credit.)

There are lots and lots of options. All of these you can put on your resume and keep you current.

(More: Are Baby Boomers Destined for Long Term Unemployment?)

Write a Blog

If a recovering engineer, like myself, who could barely read coming out of high school can write a blog…… well….

Get some help in setting up the blog. There are lots of people in your community will help you for free. When you start to blog write on a regular schedule. Promote your blog on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Yes, you will have to learn how to promote on Social Media!

Social Media is here to stay. GET OVER IT!

There are a lot of free resources like the Hubspot Webinar and White-paper pages

What better skill to acquire when long term unemployed than social media.

Jim Adcock, my good friend and fellow Launch Pad Job Club board member did a series of guest posts on this blog last year on how his blog has made him a respected member of the Sharepoint community but more importantly has kept him employed!

(More: Over 50 and long term unemployed – What do you do?)

Write a Book or an E-Book

In writing my book, Repurpose Your Career, I discovered the world of publishing has changed forever.

I got help. Gudjon Bergmann who has a business called Communicator Blueprints and has a book called THE AUTHOR’S BLUEPRINT – THE EASY WAY TO WRITE NON-FICTION.

I followed Gudjon’s process in coming up with the title, chapter list and other processes in writing my book. What I love about Gudjon is he is extremely practical. He says when writing your first book — write a book and not THE book.

If you write an e-book the cost in minimal. There are lot’s of low cost and near free resources on publishing an e-book. Think what a hiring manager might think when they google your name and you come up on Amazon.com!

Whether your next step is a full time job, contract work or an entrepreneur working for yourself, you will have created a name for yourself while your are Long Term Unemployed!

Do you want to stay Long Term Unemployed or do you want to feel valued, respected and needed?

As the Nike slogan says Just do it!

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Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out my new book!

Available on Amazon.com

Available at Barnes and Noble

You can also download my whitepaper “Don’t Retire Even If you Can and What to do Instead – A Baby Boomer Manifesto”

Marc Miller Career Design Specialist