Unemployment and the Senior Citizen
Finding Work Over 50
Over 50 and looking for a job? Too young for Social Security? Getting increasingly desperate and depressed as the days and months and even years go by? Then, welcome to the club!
Unfortunately, this is a club that is increasing at a steady rate and this writer is a member of that club. I am a former writer/researcher who is 62 years old and has been looking for a regular job for the last two years. Technically, I do have a part-time job now as a school crossing guard, but it doesn't pay nearly enough to take care of the bills.
Undoubtedly, many of you feel alone - like you are the only one going through this struggle. As the months and years go by you may feel increasingly hopeless and desperate. You weren't expecting to lose your job and your age. Like many of us, you have bills - mortgage, rent, credit cards - that were easy to pay when you were working, but impossible now. A recent article on MSN discusses how people who find themselves unemployed are surviving by draining their savings, their retirement funds, and being forced to use credit cards.
The collection agencies may be coming after you - as though they could get blood out of a stone! You may be facing homelessness. And while President Obama may be offering bail-outs to GM and others, you are still waiting for your bail-out check to arrive in the mail!
Well, you are NOT alone! Every day more middle-aged and senior people are discovering that age discrimination is a reality when it comes to finding jobs.
The purpose of my columns will be to offer advice for the senior job seeker, direct people to places that can help, and serve as a meeting place for people to express their opinions, advice, and share what they are going through. What has worked for you? What hasn't worked for you? What are you going through emotionally?
So keep watching for my columns. Perhaps by working together we can come up with solutions to this dilemma.
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