Unemployment Statistics for Older Adults

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor has published an article about the high unemployment rate among older workers (age 55 and older). The jobless rate among older workers in February 2010 was 7.1%, which was just under the all time high of 7.2% in December 2009. This jobless rate is much lower than the jobless rate for those aged 16-24 (18.9%) and for those aged 25-54 (8.6%). 
However, those older adults who are unemployed spend a longer period searching for a job. Older adults had a 35.5 week duration of joblessness, compared to 23.3 weeks for people aged 16 -24 and 30.3 weeks for people aged 25-54.  Another trend has been an increase in the number of older adults working, which has increased  through  mid 2009 and then stayed constant at about 40%.  For more information, please click here.