In addition, NELP researchers found that compared with other age groups, once older workers became unemployed, they were most likely to become long-term unemployed. In fact, forty percent of older workers who were unemployed during 2011 were jobless at least a year, the highest rate among all age groups.
There are economic and political implications for the problems older workers have had with work.
On the political front, President Obama has not done well with older people, says Jeff Jones, managing editor of the Gallup Poll in Princeton, N.J.
“Among people 50 and older, his approval rating has been in the low 40s,” says Mr. Jones. “Certainly as a group he will have to do better with them and in fact if he does better among this group, he will be a shoe-in for reelection.”
The economic concerns are more long-term. Many of the older workers who are out of work, own their own homes and are trying to avoid foreclosure. In addition, many are draining their lifesavings, including their retirement accounts, in order to buy groceries and pay their bills.
