Older job seekers facing age barrier

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like many unemployed older workers, 64-year-old Allan Kellum fears his age has made it harder to find a new job. At a recent job fair, Kellum expressed interest in a supervisory role coordinating an international health-assistance program. A recruiter set him straight: “The people applying for that are young.”

So now Kellum, who lives in McLean, Va., takes no chances. He’s deleted his college graduation date from his r sum and reduced the number of years it covers. He’s hoping that will help move his r sum past any screeners who would be put off by his age.

Kellum, who’s been out of work since January, may be right to be concerned. Despite their years of experience, out-of-work older people are finding it harder than other adults to find new jobs. And attempts to appear younger on r sum s and in person — some are even taking Botox injections — may be no match for the squeeze this recession is putting on employers.

Older workers have always found it harder than others to land a new job after a layoff. In part, that’s because many employers assume they’re more expensive or won’t stay long in jobs that pay less than they’ve earned previously.

But this job market has been especially frustrating for them. The Labor Department said Thursday that as of June, unemployed workers 55 or older were jobless an average of nearly 30 weeks, compared with about 21 weeks for those under 55. That gap has widened during the recession: In 2006, it averaged only six weeks.

And the jobless rate for those 55 and older rose to 7 percent in June, the highest for that age group on records dating to 1948.

“This recession seems to be a little bit different” because of the “unusually large increase” in unemployment among older workers, said Richard Johnson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and expert on retirement issues.

Now, many older workers are taking steps similar to Kellum’s, to try to minimize any role their age might play in hiring decisions. R sum -tinkering is among the most common strategies.

To avoid appearing out of touch, others are using their time between jobs to become familiar with the latest technologies and social-networking sites. Sharon Armstrong, a career consultant in Washington, D.C., urged one client fearful of seeming too old to discuss her use of Twitter and Facebook during job interviews.

And she endorses the idea of keeping certain dates off r sum s.

“I don’t think anyone needs to know when you graduated from college,” she said. “Don’t give people reasons to discriminate against you.”

Job counselors say they remind older workers that networking is even more crucial for them than for younger job-seekers, because their r sum s are sometimes undervalued.

Patricia McNally, 58, is following that advice: She’s using Web sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Yet one of her most effective tools is decidedly low-tech: her dog, Lola.

After being laid off from a marketing job in Washington, D.C., in December, McNally decided she could no longer afford to pay her dog-walker.

Still, the dog-walker forwarded her r sum to a communications start-up company. That led to an interview, and although the company isn’t yet hiring, McNally thinks she’s gained a foothold there.

“You never know where your networking’s going to come from,” she said.