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With jobs so scarce, boomers are up against those who are at least 15 years older and those half their age in a desperate scramble for work.
The number of unemployed workers 75 and older increased to more than 73,000 in January 2009, up 46% from the prior January. Among workers 65 and older, the jobless rate stands at 5.7%. That's below the national average, but well above what it was in previous recessions, including the recession of 1981, when it reached 4.3%.
The growing numbers reflect, in part, an increase in the number of older workers. The percentage of people 65 and older who are in the workforce rose to 16.8% at year end, from 11.9% a decade earlier. Among people 75 and older, the increase was even greater--to 7.3% from 4.7%.
As people live longer and stay in better health, some of them merely want the stimulation and challenge of a job. But for other workers, the motivation is financial necessity.
Fewer people than in years past are covered by defined-benefit plans, such as company-sponsored pensions that guarantee them specific monthly income for life. Those with retirement investments have seen their values erode with the stock market tumble. Others worked for smaller companies, or were self-employed, and never had pensions. Many are outliving whatever savings they might have had, especially by the time they reach their mid to late 70s. Mortgages and medical bills push others into the job market because Social Security and Medicare, though helpful and critical, aren't enough.
What has something really cool that you've never seen before and can't get anywhere else? The answer is Facebook, which now says it is adding a staggering five million members a week...and...boomer women are the fastest-growing demographic on the site.
Visit SoBabyBoomer's tent at the Blogging Boomer Carnival #105 hosted this week by Cynthia Samuels at Don't Gel Too Soon.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that American Baby Boomers have discovered Facebook in a big way. Others are using it as a networking tool in a bad economy.
The fastest-growing demographic on the site?
Women 55 and older, up 175% since September 2008. Cynics might say that if Granny is on Facebook, the site absolutely has jumped the shark. Quite the contrary: Having a broad swath of users is exactly what Facebook wants. The arrival of an older, less Web-centric crowd suggests that it has succeeded in making the site easy to use.
However, here are some lies you may be telling yourself about Facebook:
1. I only friend people I really know: Stop pretending you have standards; how many of your "friends" would you invite to your house? You probably just want your friend count to be sky-high.
2. Wall-to-Wall flirting isn't cheating: Just because it's called "social networking" with "friends" doesn't make hard-core online flirting OK. Remember, virtual gifting counts. In fact, it's probably not appropriate for you to be "friending" and sending cute virtual gifts to people of the opposite sex who you interact with at your workplace.
3. I use Facebook to keep in touch with people: No, the truth is you're nosy. Admit it. Facebook isn't addictive--your desire to know what other people are up to is addictive. Facebook is our own personal reality show and our friends are the stars. You know you're dying to discover your college roommate lives in a trailer or an ex-boyfriend was sporting a comb-over.
4. I'm sooo over Facebook: Come on. You love Facebook for exactly the reasons you pretend to hate it...it's the Big Thing. We know you spend hours looking for former girlfriends or that guy who you loved from freshman psych but didn't have the courage to talk to.
5. And I am sooo not competitive: We don't just want more friends than everybody else; we also want the highest score in Word Twist and the most virtual Easter Eggs. By the way, if you have a Scramble score higher than 147, don't even think about friending me.
6. Facebook is my friend: No, it's a business (albeit one that had estimated revenues that totaled just $280 million last year and has yet to make money). Everyone knows casinos hide the exits and pump oxygen into the air to keep you gambling and get all your money. Facebook is doing the same thing to keep you on the site....so they can attract advertisers. Think about it.
Source: Facebook Made Me Do It by Raina Kelley, a Newsweek Web Exclusive, February 20, 2009
As boomers struggle to resuscitate their careers and Gen Y millennials flood the workforce, information technology (IT) managers are having to weigh the relative value of traditional and new-age skills.
Throughout busy job fairs, crowded boardrooms and hectic IT departments across the U.S., a battle royal is brewing between aging Baby Boomers and fresh-faced Gen Y millennials---two distinct generations with different work styles, conflicting cultures and disparate skill sets.
On one side stand the boomers: IT veterans valued for their unwavering work ethic, vast experience and institutional memory. Who after watching their retirement savings dwindle and the demand for small side projects disappear, are now motivated to re-enter the workforce.
IT managers are facing a tough predicament: a head-on collision between two vastly talented yet differing generations, both vying for full-time employment in a fast-shrinking economy. Deciding whom to hire--or layoff--requires sorting through a minefield of competing technical expertise, business acumen, cultural preferences and career expectations.
Baby Boomers and Gen Y millennials might have eased by each other in the workplace with no clash at all, as boomers gradually retired and Gen Ys moved in and up the ranks. But a faltering economy changed all that.
Tinnitus--the false perception of sound in the absence of an acoustic stimulus, a phantom noise--is one of the most common clinical syndromes in the United States, affecting twelve percent of men and almost fourteen percent of women who are sixty-five and older. It only rarely afflicts the young, with one significant exception: those serving in the armed forces. Tinnitus affects nearly half the solders exposed to blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Taking a multivitamin didn't cut the risk of cancer, cardiovascular problems or dying among post-menopausal women, according to a study released recently.
The study, considered the largest multivitamin study in post-menopausal women conducted to date, was published in the February 9, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Overall, it showed few differences in the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and dying from any cause between vitamin users and women who didn't take multivitamins.
The toll of jobs lost in the U.S. since the recession began is heading toward three million. Unlike previous downturns, this one is not confined to the technology or manufacturing sectors. It is the Equal Opportunity Recession, winding its way into every corner of the economy.
Job seekers have a few things in common: frustration, fear and resilience. They want to work. They have treated unemployment as a full-time job in itself because they have learned that in the end, they have only themselves (and their mentor or coach) to rely on.
A Boomer Career Counselor takes his own advice
Greg Dillon, 49, of Marietta, GA, volunteered at career centers and his church to help people write resumes and strategize about jobs. It was a satisfying way to share his skills as a training and development specialist. Dillon is now in the odd position of having to take his own advice. Last November on the day before his 49th birthday, he was laid off from Forum Co., the second time he'd lost a position in the previous 18 months. "Unfortunately for me, I know what to do in terms of being unemployed," he says.
The worst thing for Dillon is the sense of powerlessness, even as he knows that others are in the same situation. "It's a double-edged sword," he says. "You don't take it as personal because it's affecting everyone, but at the same time those other people are also competing against you for jobs."
It has been said the average man plans to spend $118 (down from $125 last year according to a Discover Card survey) on Valentine's Day gifts this year...and...I am one of those guys who has brought the average down.
Men are pressured to buy their loved ones everything from teddy bears to diamonds or take them away on expensive vacations....especially on the upcoming three-day weekend. The most popular gift from husbands: a special dinner, followed by flowers, candy, a night on the town, and special clothing, like a negligee that can be enjoyed by both partners. Men who are not husbands most likely bring the average gift spending up since their lady knows that, "You don't know me well enough to not care how I look."
Of course, some boomer women would give up celebrating Valentine's Day altogether. A survey from the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education found that 75% of women would give up celebrating Valentine's Day "in exchange for greater financial piece of mind." If you are one of the lucky men, your boomer woman is in the other 25% and is not just into financial security.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2009
Career coaches and recruiters can help job seekers while establishing their personal brand by providing advice (tools, tips, insights) and expressing themselves at this new free online meeting place. In your unique niche, recruiters and career coaches can become a mini-Oprah while attracting potential job seeking clients. Also, coaches and recruiters will feel good while contributing their energies toward influencing people to take the right action, at the right time and place in their career moves.
Your generosity and community spirit in helping yourself and others by practicing the Law of Reciprocity will result in new career move opportunities.
Today, this new career forum is just getting started and its rate of growth with depend upon how often and well we all contribute our thoughts and recommendations in postings or asking and answering questions on the site. To ask or answer a question, start or contribute to a specific forum or post to your personal blog on the site, just go to: www.CareerTips.us.comtoday!
What's in it for me?
If you are a boomer job seeker, using this free career forum can help you define and find your encore career.
It is expected that a handful of recruiters and career coaches will rise to the top through a combination of smarts, good timing and frequent contributions to selected forums and answers to job seeker questions. This future elite group of recruiters and coaches will be thrust into stardom via their links and recommendations placed on this social network site. These maven recruiters and coaches will personally soar within search engine rankings---allowing job seekers to find them online.
Please go to the new Career Forum today to join and then begin asking or answering questions regarding potential career moves.
Blogging carnivals start out by the thousands, but those that can sustain themselves for as many as 50 episodes are much fewer. And a carnival which has turned out its 100th edition is practically unheard of!
