Are older workers getting in the way of the young?
Posted on 06 January 2012
By Mark Miller
Permanent URL of this article: http://retirementrevised.com/career/are-older-workers-getting-in-the-way-of-the-young
Today’s report on unemployment shows that the economy continues to gather steam – payrolls grew by 200,000 and the jobless rate ticked downward again, to 8.5 percent.
But young Americans are having a much tougher time finding work than older workers. The seasonally-adjusted jobless rate for workers over age 55 stood at 6.2 percent last month, compared with 9.4 percent for workers age 25 to 34. And the overall workforce is getting more gray.
All of which begs the question: In an economy where 20 million Americans are still out of work or underemployed, are older workers hurting the young by refusing to get out of the way? News stories on unemployment often say that they are – and intuition might tell you that’s so.
But any mainstream economist will tell you that’s just not how labor markets work. Learn more in my column this week for Reuters Money.
