It breaks your heart to hear how a certain class of people in America are treated today. Consider, for example, the words of “William”:

Because of reversals in the markets, I was compelled two years ago to re-enter the work force. I have a PhD and experience in academic administration that includes advanced skills in writing, speaking, budget management, personnel management, etc. I have applied for over 60 positions and been granted three interviews. Each time, I was recommended as a finalist, and each time was not hired. Corporate America won’t even grant me an interview. I have strong reason to believe that age discrimination is affecting my lack of success, but proving it is another matter since the hiring process is routinely conducted in a black box. Finally, I landed a position in retail sales that is both stressful and financially unrewarding. I’m 67 years old, in excellent health (I feel about 45), and lead an energetic lifestyle, but can’t break through the stereotypes. Any suggestions?

I totally relate. In 14 months of unemployment, I am reporting for only my second employment interview next Monday. (Pray for me!) My first one was ab0rted when I showed up with gray hair….

The major problem is the sorry state of age discrimination case law today, which has given employers a license to steal. Despite the fact that age discrimination complaints are up 30 percent over a year ago, few lawyers will even take such cases because the odds are so poor.

I think the answer is not through the courts, but through people power. They didn’t hear us during the town hall meetings. They didn’t hear us during the march on Washington. They didn’t hear us during the Tea Parties. They started to hear us in the Massachusetts upset. I predict that they’ll really start to hear us when a leader arises who can really tap into the angst of the Boomers.

This a gargantuan demographic. If every person over the age of 50, for example, threatened not to pay taxes, this thing would be over in a heartbeat. We are the ones who pay 75 percent of everything that happens in America. That’s what I call power.

Anybody with me?

P.S. Can you believe that some people are challenging my right to free speech because I’m t0o pro-business? As preposterous as that is, I undererstand the psychopathology and accept its implications…

If you were hoping for a better year ahead, I don’t recommend reading those traditional year-ender economic forecasts this time. The New Year 2010 probably isn’t going to be a heck of a lot better for the working class than the Old Year 2009, if at all.

Let me spare you the angst and summarize it for you. My one caveat, stated here yesterday, is that most bean counters are treating this like just another economic cycle of recession and recovery, just more severe. And I think that misses the point. (See yesterday’s ‘Unemployment: The real story,’ which makes the case for a much more fundamental change in the business of making a living.)

Taking that into account, here are highlights from the Associated Press’ attempts to make sense of it all:

• Between the millions of baby boomers who should be leaving the workforce but now can’t afford to retire and the swelling tab to employers for unemployment costs, jobs could become comparatively harder to find as pressures c0ntinue to mount on businesses not to hire.
• While 21.7 million new jobs were added between 1989 and 1999, the same figure for the decade just ending was a meager 464 thousand.
• Following a decade of “normal” unemployment right around 5 to 6 percent, the “New Abnormal” may well be an era of chronically high unemployment averaging 8 percent or more over the next decade, according to economist David Levy.
• Economic historian John Steel Gordon calls this “the mother of all jobless recoveries.”
• The best-case scenario may be a return to the old normal (5 to 6 percent unemployment) by the middle of the new decade. Worst case: Not until the next decade.

Read the rest of the gory details, if you must, at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34601256/ns/business-us_business/.

NEWS

Oct. 7, 2009 – Older workers received good news yesterday of a Congressional challenge  to a Supreme Court decision in June of this year that many say encourages age discrimination in the workplace. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Congressman George Miller (D-CA), introduced legislation they say restores vital civil rights protections for older workers in the face of the Supreme Court’s decision. http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Politics/2009/20091007-PowerfulCongressional.htm

The fact is that unemployment affects those over age 55 disproportionately. They are significantly over-represented among laid-off workers. And once out of work, it takes them significantly longer to find another job. According to a USA Today article referenced here recently, “The loss of a job for an older worker can erase the dominant income of a middle-class family, wipe out savings as retirement nears and deny aging people health insurance when it’s needed most.”

To put a human face on it, take a look at John Stannard.  Stannard, 61, is one of seventeen plaintiffs in an age-discrimination suit against the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) in Niskayuna, New York, where he performed pressure testing for nuclear containment systems until a major cut in the workforce.

But get this: The layoffs occurred in 1995. The middle-aged workers won an initial court victory in 1997, but the case has been on appeal ever since. In the meantime, two of the original plaintiffs have died. Stannard believes courts should give special consideration in age cases. “Time is definitely not on our side,” he said.

Stannard’s family has been devastated. His son had to drop out of pharmacy school for lack of funds. Stannard testified to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):

When I was laid off, I felt completely betrayed. . . . In desperate need of money, I took the only job readily available, which was a janitor position at KAPL. I was cleaning the wastebaskets of my former colleagues. I also took a nearly 50 percent wage cut. I was very humiliated.

Stannard’s health also deteriorated with a series of stress-related ailments. Is this what older jobless workers have to look forward to? As it stands now, it would seem so.

Fortunately for the victims, God sees–and his heart is with the downtrodden. Unfortunately for America, we could pay a steep price as a nation for this kind of unrectified injustice. The God of the universe sees.

Who’s bearing the brunt of the current unemployment tsunami? If it’s been looking like a particuar problem for older workers, your eyes are not lying. It’s been documented that those hardest hit this time are Boomers, especially males.

There are reasons for this. The New York Times opined that it’s because some of the sectors hardest hit are traditional male bastions–construction, manufacturing and finance. (If you want a reminder of carnality, read the gloating comments of feminists who think it’s about time.)

That doesn’t ring entirely true to me, but there are some other factors that do. Once upon a time, labor unions used to be a major force in favor of the rights of employee seniority, but labor influence has been deciining in recent decades. Also, older (and male) workesrs tend to make more money, so companies needing to trim their bottom line can get there faster by eliminating those jobs.

Another anecdotal indicator is the fact that age discrimination complaints against employers are up 30 percent over a year ago. Problem is, most of these cases are losers because of recent federal court decisions making them almost impossible to prosecute. In effect, any other plausible business reason trumps the age issue. So, lawyers have been avoiding these cases. Some that have been in the courts for years are literally outliving some of the comlainants and witnesses.

For an interesting read on this subject, see “Tough times for older male workers” at USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2009-07-29-oldermales_N.htm?poe=HFMostPopular