Last week was the annual National Employ Older Workers Week. Numerous newspaper and blog articles were written on the topic. Many local organizations conducted older worker career fairs.
I wonder just how effective these are in the current economy. But maybe, just maybe, this economy can be an opportunity for older workers.
A story I’ve told often. It was 1991 and my son Bryant graduated from Tufts University with an engineering degree. In the slow economy of that time, there were few jobs for new engineers. And he had none.
One day, shortly thereafter, he called me while standing in line at a job fair in Boston. His complaint to me was “I’ll never get a job here – most of the other job seekers in line were my (that’s me) age”. Needless to say it took me awhile to get my laughter under control.
Is there a message here? Yes, but it is worthy of an article or two on the need for Positive Thinking.
But now, back to the National Employ Older Workers Week. Following is a collection of particularly good articles published during the week. I’ve added my comments and links to the full articles. Enjoy. Comments are welcome.
- Employers See Older Workers As Good Hire
KMBC-TV of Kansas City, MO published an article with a nice positive slant on age friendly employers. Also note the information about free college classes for those over 65 in Missouri and over 60 in Kansas. See complete article. - Tips For Boomers Who Are Seeking Work
Maureen Moriarty wrote an interesting/informative article for the Seattlepi.com. Good classic tips for older job seekers but worth repeating. See complete article. - Employers Learning Gray Matters
Betty Beard begins her article in The Arizona Republic with “More employers now realize they need to recruit and retrain older workers = especially Baby Boomers. But many aren’t sure how to go about that.” See complete article. - Older Employees Bring Knowledge and Experience To The Workplace
Carole Currie writes in the Ashville Citizen Times about some of the realities facing job seekers. She also addresses a few of the “Myths” regarding older employees. More on “Older Worker Myths” in future articles. See complete article. - 100 Years Old and Still Going to Work Every Day
Three active employees; 100, 95 and 100 are profiled by Emily Brandon in U.S. News & World Report. See complete article.
Do you have a favorite article? Please do send it to me.
100 years old and still going to work every day is the kind of stuff I like to hear about! Quite often people just start deteriorating after retirement, and one of the big reasons is that the sense of purpose that came with holding down a regular job has now disappeared, and the very reason for living and soldiering on has been taken away. Keeping yourself active equates to longevity in my opinion, and I myself will never truly retire, that’s a fact!