Go Home Grandpa!
 

and gimme your job........:mad::mad::eek::P:o

Another reason why unemployment, consumer spending, housing, and the recovery of everything else will be verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy slow this recession around.:rolleyes:
From today's WSJ


Older Work Force Has an Ugly Wrinkle


By LIAM DENNING
Summertime, and the living is easy…for many, too easy. This July was the worst on record for youth employment: Less than half of all 16- to 24-year-olds had a job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Add in those who were looking for a job and the overall labor-force participation rate, at 60.5%, was also the worst for any July since 1948.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, more than 40% of over-55s have work or are looking for it, the highest share since JFK was in office.

The graying of America's work force is a fact of (longer) life. But it is amplified by changing work habits among different age groups.

In the last economic upswing, lasting six years starting in November 2001, a net 10.4 million jobs were created. Almost one in seven were for workers 55 or older. In the period since November 2007, when the latest recession began, 7.4 million jobs have disappeared. For over-55s, though, a net 1.8 million jobs have been added in that time.

This largely reflects the demographic bulge of baby boomers rolling through the population over the past decade. But it also speaks to more Americans putting off retirement. Having fallen steadily since the late 1960s, the labor-force participation rate among over-55s bottomed out in the mid-1990s at 29% and has risen since by 11 percentage points. For over-65s, the rate has gone from about 12% to 17% in that time.

There are many reasons more Americans are staying in the workplace. But two stock-market dropoffs and a housing meltdown in the space of a decade must loom large.

On the positive side, the declining share of manufacturing in the economic mix, and concomitant increases in services, should make it easier for many to continue working.

This will expand the work-force beyond what conventional models predict, says Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research. He estimates the trend of putting off retirement could add an extra 0.3% to the labor force each year over the next few years. That doesn't sound like much. But overall growth in the U.S. population ages 15 to 64—the usual definition of "working age"—is projected by the World Bank to be just 0.6% per annum until 2015.

A growing labor force provides fuel for longer-term economic expansion. However, the downside is more competition for already scarce jobs. America's youth, suffering 26.1% unemployment, may find it even harder to get work. A looser labor market should mean continuing pressure on wages and unit labor costs. In the short run, that should help underpin corporate profits amid slack demand. The flip side, however, is that this is deflationary for demand, especially as older workers nearing or indeed past retirement age tend to save more of their income than younger workers who have cars and houses to buy.

Ultimately, the ripples could spread beyond America. Higher savings rates, Mr. Dumas says, should erode U.S. net imports. That is bad news for three countries facing their own population-aging issues and all dependent to some degree on sprightly demand from Americans for their exports: China, Japan and Germany.

I can't wait till the WalMart greeters have acne and bad attitudes . . . :D

Did you know that Walmart takes out a one million dollar insurance policy on all of it's elderly greeters. :D

My son, who is 17 and has been working at a nearby retreat center since he was 14, recently got hired at a very popular upscale restaurant in town. The owner who interviewed him said he'd interviewed 65 high school aged kids in three weeks looking to fill a half dozen positions and virtually all of them were un-hireable due to their appearance and attitude. He said he even had several who continued to text message while being interviewed.:eek:

I'm one of those over 55's. I just got called to consider taking a computer lab position at one of the schools in my old district. I might just do it. I could put an extra 35 or 40k in the bank the year before sonny boy goes off to college. Wouldn't hurt. I guess that's a good case in point. If I take that job, I won't be spending any of it for a while. It'll all go into the coffee can I keep in the barn. Around here, service industry jobs aren't very hard to get. People may not be buying homes, but they're still coming here in droves on vacation and spending money in the hotels, restaurants and spas.

Retiring in your 60s made sense 50 years ago when you were lucky to live that long. Unless you have a job digging ditches, retirement seems pretty silly.

By Jove, you may have hit the nail on the head.

I explained this to my son. He didn't believe me.

I dressed him and coached him for one interview in the summer.

It was the only job offer he got, which he accepted.

I am going to start a job clinic/seminar and charge all the young dudes and dudettes money to learn the following:
- how to speak
- how to address people whom they don't know
- how to stand and sit
- how to write
- how to conduct themselves at interviews and on the job
- how to match and buy clothing
- how to dress
- how to enter a room for success
- how to stand and speak in front of a group
- how to command someone's attention
- how to command someone's respect
- how to negotiate
- how to bluff

You can dress the way you want when you have 92 million in the bank at age 18 like Miley Cyrus, but if you don't, there are conventions to follow. Which the young people missed out on. Well, many have.

It's what us crafty older folks know.

Just remember the motto of the Old Crow's Association: " Guile and skill will outdo youth and enthusiasm." This holds true with employment, too.

If you don't know who the Old Crows are, google them.

Unless of course you are an inherently lazy man such as myself who would rather sleep late and then expend only enough energy only flop into the pool and float around relaxing all day :D

- Peter.

LOL, I can do that for about a week before going crazy.

I'm with you, but only for a day or two, unless it's a real vacation.

I guess living single for the past 16 years made me get moving sooner in the morning and weekends. I'm a "day's half over at 9am" sort of guy.;)
OTOH, the G/F has a sleep later, mid-day nap old (eastern) European mindset.


Texting while interviewing.:eek: Classic!:D:D:D:D:D

Dale Carnegie's course will benefit anyone too in developing many of these skills. Sure helped me along 30 yrs ago. (Rule 1. The 3 C's.;):cool:)

And don't come to an interview chewing gum !!!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad:

The little old yellow & black book, "How to win Friends & Influence People" is worth a read, its a bit dated but the message is there.

I've always encouraged my kids to speak publicly every chance they get. It builds confidence and poise which carries through to career opportunities.