Back to Work: More Seniors Forced to Forgo Retirement

www.bakersfield.com

February 1, 2009 

Former office assistant Dorothy Rinehart had no intention of leaving the workforce permanently when she took early retirement to care for her ailing mother.

Like a lot of her peers, Rinehart, 69, isn’t in a position to retire. A single mother of four, she didn’t have much left over after expenses to invest in a 401(k) in her younger years.

“I wish, now, I’d done things differently,” she said. “But the reality is, after my mother passed, I had to go back to work.”

Rinehart is among a growing number of seniors who have either delayed retirement or are returning to the work force after years away.
Even before the recession, many older Americans had to work. About 40 percent of baby boomers have no assets, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Advances in medicine are partly to blame.

“People are living longer, and a lot of them are outliving their savings,” said Carleen MacKay, work force policy adviser for the American Association of Retired Persons.

In spite of the organization’s name, by the way, more than half of AARP members hold full- or part-time jobs. 

RECESSION MADE IT WORSE

A national foreclosure epidemic cost many older people their houses or reduced value for home equity lines or reverse mortgages.

At the same time, nest eggs that cared for previous generations are less reliable.

Only 18 percent of seniors in the private sector have a pension plan, according to AARP. And if the government takes over a troubled company’s pensions, pension holder pay decreases.

The transition to 401(k) and Individual Retirement Accounts has made seniors more vulnerable to stock market volatility.

Barbara Bert, 66, blames the economy for her recent decision to return to work after retiring in 2007 from a job servicing student loans. She’s now a cook at the Bakersfield Senior Center.

“The economy is something else,” she said. “I don’t see how people survive. I’ve never seen it like this in all my days.” 

CHALLENGES SENIORS FACE

Seniors should consult a tax adviser and the Social Security Administration before leaving retirement.

Depending on your age and how much you earn, Social Security benefits might be reduced.

Those who do go back to work, or who work longer, face a tough job market.
The nation isn’t quite at the unemployment levels of the 1930s, when a quarter of the country was out of work. But Kern County’s unemployment rate in December was 11.8 percent, according to the California Employment Development Department.

The unemployment rate for California workers age 65 and older is up from a 12-month average of 3.9 percent in December 2007 to 5.5 percent in December of last year, according to the Current Population Survey of California households. 

WAYS TO GET HELP

One program that helps seniors who have trouble finding work is Senior Employment Resources. It pays low-income seniors minimum wage for temporary on-the-job training in government and at area nonprofit agencies.

Georgia Rice, case manager at the U.S. Department of Labor funded program, said that solves two big obstacles to job placement. Some seniors lack technological skills, she said. Or a lack of recent work history can be an issue.

“We give them 20 hours a week of training, and some recent work experience to put on their resumes,” Rice said.

Robert Hoffman, 68, is a graduate of the program. He restocks the sales floor at Goodwill Industries.

“I’m glad to be working again,” he said. “I was tired of sitting around the house.” 

AGE DISCRIMINATION

Rinehart, the former office assistant who quit to care for her mother, also is an alum.

She tried in vain to find work on her own, but thinks recruiters held her age against her.

“Time after time I left interviews that seemed to go well only to be told later I wasn’t what they were looking for,” she said. “It wasn’t my qualifications. My skills are worth their weight in gold.”

Her frustration isn’t unusual. Age discrimination complaints filed with the Equal Opportunity Commission increased nearly a quarter between 1997 and 2007.

Senior Employment Resources placed Rinehart with the Kern County Aging and Adult Services Department for a portion of her job training. That paved the way to a clerical position with Kern Adult Literacy Council.

Companies whose customers skew older tend to be more open to employees with gray hair, but there’s no reason seniors should be constrained to that niche, AARP’s MacKay said.

“Fortunately, I do think more employers are starting to see the value of mature workers,” she said. “Knowing how to deal with a difficult customer, that comes from experience that you’re not going to find in someone straight out of college.”

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