The problem isn't age: work and older Americans.

The Problem Isn't Age: Work and Older Americans

The labor market problems of older workers are powered less by age discrimination these days than by other factors-the displacement of workers due to a faltering economy that results in lengthy spells of joblessness often extending into involuntary early retirement; poor health and disabilities that drive them from the workforce prematurely, and the difference encountered by women, minority group members and those whose low levels of education left them vulnerable to present or past discrimination.

That conclusion emerges from this study that examines the aging of the workforce and the population, the restructuring of the nation's industrial complex in the face of rising foreign competition as well as changing times and changing technologies, and the actions taken by a bipartisan national commission in concert with Congress to reinforce the financial integrity of the social security system.

Although the percentage of older persons in the labor force isn't expected to increase dramatically in the near future, the number of older Americans who want to continue working is on the increase, emphasizes Sandell, an economist at the National Commission for Employment Policy and currently director of its project on national employment policy and older Americans. He was formerly an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University and a one-time Brookings Institute fellow at the Dept. of Health & Human Services.

Sandell draws on the expertise of a wide range of labor economists, gerontologists and public policy analysts associated with major universities and research institutions to examine such issues as the reduced pay of older job losers, aging and relative earnings, part-time employment of older workers, job displacement and how the federal-state Employment Service treats this problem, government employment and ...