Ella Mae Bombardo (Liz Sawyer)
When Ella Mae Bombardo heard the Syracuse University chapter of Pi Beta Phi fraternity for women would close this spring, she worried about her five-year plan.
Bombardo, 63, acts as the house mother for Pi Phi and was just two years away from her scheduled retirement when she learned that she would lose her second job.
“Before, I would have considered myself wealthy. Now, I consider myself on the poor side,” Bombardo said. “Maybe I always will be.”
Bombardo is among the thousands of workers aged 55 and above considered as “actively seeking employment” — part-time or full-time — under the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ definition of unemployment.
Here are some statistics from the Labor Department on older jobseekers:
- Nationally, the unemployment rate for men and women 55-plus has doubled since December 2007. It is now 5.8 percent.
- In New York state, the unemployment rate for workers between ages 55-64 was 5.3 percent as of last year.
- On average, older workers remain unemployed more than a year. Last month, the average duration of unemployment rose to 57.7 weeks from 55.7 weeks in September.
Unemployment among older workers is less than the nation’s overall 7.9 percent. But, say experts, the economic recession has left older workers in a special bind. They are often out of work just below the retirement age and still unable to collect Social Security pensions. They are often among the first to get laid off when employers make cuts, as their salaries are generally higher than those of younger less-experienced workers. Many older workers lack the adaptability and energy needed to find a new job in their field. And if they’re out of work for a significant amount of time, they may also lack the skill set to come back.
Older workers who have been unemployed for six months or more have considerably lower odds of actually getting rehired, experts say. Employers must decide between investing in someone who may only work for a few years and someone who could stay with the company most of their life. When this happens, they will almost always go with the younger applicant, said SU economist Jerry Evensky.
Even when older workers have comparable skills to their younger competition, employers may not even bother to interview the candidate because they view them as a liability, Evensky said. Employers may assume, he said, “They’re an old dog and it’s not easy to teach them new tricks.”
Age discrimination is largely to blame for older workers’ hardships, despite laws that strictly prohibit it, said Donald Dutkowsky, another economist at SU.
“Employers see the age and come up with all kinds of preconceptions: that you’re expecting a higher salary because you’ve had the experience, that perhaps you don’t have the energy to adapt and learn the new workplace, or anything like that,” he said.
On the other hand, workers aged 55 and above are dependable, Dutkowsky said. When employers always favor younger candidates, they miss out on the more experienced workers’ strengths, such as being on time and working longer hours.
National organizations such as AARP are beginning to offer resources for older job seekers. In August, AARP launched a new jobs initiative called Work Reimagined to help connect 55-plus workers with companies.
In Central New York, the YMCA of Greater Rochester is one of AARP’s job-friendly companies. The YMCA offers health benefits to all employees who clock more than 20 hours a week, including those who are working after their retirement age.
These programs provide relief to experienced workers, as the average retirement age is now pushing 67 years old, according to Gallup’s annual economy and personal finance survey.
For Bombardo, the last six years has meant seven days a week at two different jobs: one during the day as a cook at the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and the other on nights and weekends at Pi Phi. Her five-year plan had been to work the two jobs until she reached age 65, when she would retire to spend time with her grandchildren.
As of May, Bombardo will lose her secondary income that keeps her family afloat. But more importantly, she said, she’ll lose her health insurance. At 63, she’s still too young to qualify for Medicare, the tax-supported entitlement program of health insurance for those 65 and older.
“I don’t know how we’re going to survive, but we will,” she said. “God will provide for us.”
(Liz Sawyer is a junior majoring in newspaper and online journalism.)
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