Seniors struggle finding work

It was two days before Christmas in 2011 when Julie Zimmerman lost her job. The Christmas presents were the first to go, sold online to the highest bidder. Then there were the garage sales where Zimmerman and her daughter sold all of their belongings, family heirlooms, clothes and shoes. They had to stay afloat until she could find another job. But she didn’t.

“You don’t have food … one day the lights are off,” Zimmerman said. “Everything I owned was in the trunk of my car.”

Zimmerman, who was laid off from her position as the general manager of a non-profit performing arts center in Texas, isn’t the sort of person you’d imagine living in her car. But she was very close so many times.

She headed to Florida to find work – she had worked in entertainment at Universal for years – but with no luck. A friend who offered them a place to stay, decided two weeks was enough and sent Zimmerman and her 16-year-old daughter off to a motel. There, the two of them barely scraped by with her unemployment and $14 a month in food stamps, sharing the tiny hotel room as police sirens screeched outside their window. Finding work was a constant battle, and she was losing.

One quality she couldn’t help was her age – Zimmerman is 58 – and it felt like a barrier in the predominantly young entertainment field where she was seeking work.

For seniors looking for help to find a new job and to learn about the organizations mentioned in the story, visit Christian HELP at christianhelp.org, AARP Foundation’s WorkSearch Information Network at aarpworksearch.org, or Goodwill at goodwillcfl.org

“You feel invisible,” Zimmerman said.

And she’s not alone. Seniors have a harder time finding work than their younger counterparts. While those in the 25- to 34- age range found a job in six months, and people 35 to 49 did so in seven months, those 50 to 61 took more than nine months to find a job, according to research by the Government Accountability Office. Zimmerman’s search took 10 months.

Since the recession, more seniors have been heading back into the workforce, but they aren’t welcomed with open arms. That’s the case for any workers with a perceived weakness – those with disabilities, lack of education, and age.

“Those are always the first to be excluded,” said Marilyn Gordon, director of vocational and community services for Goodwill Industries of Florida. “They’re really, really at a disadvantage.”

“There’s some level of discrimination,” said Sandi Vidal, executive director at Christian HELP, an organization that offers job search help. “The perception that they’re older and not tuned into today’s trends and technology.”

While that wasn’t the case with Zimmerman, not all older workers are so educated. Many don’t know how to use a computer or haven’t been in the workforce for years, making their interview skills rusty and their confidence level low. Organizations like Christian HELP and Goodwill offer career counseling, computer classes and interview coaching, and have seen a growth of seniors coming into their offices for help since the recession.

Many are heading back to supplement their retirement or Social Security income because it isn’t enough, some are looking for the social and mental stimulation that comes with work, and others are searching after being laid off. Lots of those laid off seniors are downgrading their positions and their salary, and some aren’t getting the position because the company can pay a younger person with little experience much less, said Sean Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the UCF College of Business Administration.

Deb Fadool, who is the project director at AARP Foundation Senior Community Service Employment Program, helps those older than 55 and making less than $13,963 a year find work. She’s seen a lot more seniors with work experience and an education than she ever has before in her 15 years there. There are people on the waiting list to join their program from 2011.

“It’s an epidemic of people that are really at the end of their rope,” Zimmerman said.

But the benefits of hiring a senior, Fadool said, are immense.

“Attendance is high, loyalty is there, experience is there,” she said.

And it’s important to leave the age, depression and hopelessness at home when going into an interview, no matter how hard that is, Gordon said.

Zimmerman proved that to Christian HELP. When she went in, she was just desperate for any kind of work. They revamped her resume, spotlighting her non-profit work, and listened to her story. Not every place she’d gone to had been so welcoming; she broke down in tears.

“I had hope for the first time that my life was going to change,” she said. “This is like an oasis in a very cruel world … they saved my life, this little building, the people.”

She kept searching, finding some success with her sleeker resume. When there was a job opening for a volunteer coordinator position at Christian HELP, Zimmerman thought she might be the person for the job. She was right.

“It was like a light for us … this was the one place to help me, and now I’m here to help other people,” she said. “Everybody has a story and now I have the empathy because I walked that story.”

It took 10 months for her to find the job, a month longer than the average older worker, and it stole a little of her heart and soul and faith in people, she said. But that’s pretty hard to tell as she greets everyone in her new office with a “Hello queen” and a “Hey handsome.” It seems her heart has been restored, and smiles are endless when she’s around. She follows Gordon’s advice perfectly – leave age at the door and dazzle with personality.

“Attitude goes a long way no matter how old you are,” Gordon said. “Let who you are show.”