Unemployment rate for older workers drops in January, says AARP

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The number of older jobless workers fell in January along with the overall unemployment rate, the AARP said Monday.

Roughly 2 million people age 55 and older were unemployed last month, 125,000 fewer than in December. The unemployment rate for these workers dropped to 6.8% from 7.2% -- 7.5% for older men -- and 6.1% for women.

After hitting a 6.3% high in September 1949, the percentage of jobless individuals had stayed comfortably beneath 6% until 2009, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Across all working age groups, the unemployment rate inched down to 9.7% from 10% in December. Out of the total, “mature” job seekers older than age 55 made up 13.4%.

Of those, 23% were older than 65. The unemployment rate for that age bracket has soared to 7.4%, from just 3.3% in December 2007.
But the percentage of long-term unemployed workers older than 55 has doubled since the start of the recession. Nearly 51% have been jobless for more than 27 weeks as of January, compared with 23% in December 2007. And older job seekers have been on the hunt for a longer period of time – 35.9 weeks on average compared with 34.7 weeks in December 2009. For applicants younger than 55, the average duration is 27.8 weeks.

Of the 27.4-million mature workers who are still employed – up 4.5% from the start of the recession – more than 1.4 million had to work part time in January for economic reasons.

Last month, the number of older, discouraged workers rose 17%, from 236,000 people who said they were not looking for jobs to 202,000 in December 2009, compared with just 53,000 in December 2007. Many were certain that no work was available, while others worried that employers would discriminate against them because of age or lack of education or training.
-- Tiffany Hsu