I am curious to know what you all have to say about the job market and the older generation?

What is the relationship between the first and second statements in your details?

Unemployment is still affecting us all but mostly the older generation, sorry thankyou for asking for clarification.

It’s a curious thing. Employers prefer cheap labor to efficient labor. I guess they don’t think older workers are efficient enough to make them worth the amount they can save hiring inexperienced people. I think employers tend to underestimate how much knowledge is contained in older people’s heads, nor how important that knowledge is.

So they hire two people where one would do, and they make more mistakes that could have been avoided.

Makes the job market difficult for older workers.

I suspected as much, I appreciate your response, but what if anything can we do to improve our opportunities?

I think you have to try to make the case that you are more efficient and that your knowledge saves the firm because you can prevent some mistakes. You may also have to be willing to accept less pay.

Also, when you do your job search, I’d stay away from anonymous approaches. Network. Only apply for jobs where you have been introduced to the employer by someone the employer knows. It’s probably a waste of time to send out resumes on spec.

Call everyone you know in the field, and ask them for a meeting. At the meeting, you discuss how things are going in the industry (i.e., you describe your skills and ask them about the work they are doing and if they know of any jobs) and then you ask two things. First, you ask them to create a job for you (explaining how you could do a good job), and second, you ask them to give you the names of two other people in the field with whom you can discuss what is going on in the field.

Good luck!

I am finding the opposite.
Older experienced workers are more in demand.
You can get them for the same amount of pay as you would pay a younger less experienced person.

Basically experienced cheap labor.

@ChazMaz That is the bane of the recent down turn in the job market. 6 figure earners are now pushing carts at Wal Mart. So yes highly qualified laid-off 50+ age group workers are going begging for a paycheck. I know far too many executives putting on tool belts these days if they are lucky!

That’s the way it is people. Nobody can engineer an economy (although all sorts of people can wreck it). It is still a market place-someone is selling their labor/skills, somebody else (employer) is buying. If your labor/skills have no value, or cost too much, the buyer is going to go someplace else. No different than you buying a car. If an employer does not want older people, than too bad for older people (I am becoming one of them). If older people gain value in the market place, they will get hired. That is a fact in reality. Because some people do not like it, or can not accept it, does not make it untrue. Imagine trying to protest or legislate against gravity. Same thing.

It doesn’t have to be just. It’s called employment-at-will and is good for both employee and employer. Would you, as an employee, want to only be able to quit your job if you had a good reason? Employers should be able to hire and fire without cause.

Since employers have had to cut back in the number of employees, most of them find that keeping the experienced ones is cost effective. However, when hiring new, inexperienced employees, they will usually go for the younger person who has lower expectations for benefits and such.

To everyone that took the time to respond to my question, I want to let you know that I appreciate your answers very much, I heard today on the radio that Oregon is one the highest percentage of unemployment states in the nation.