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<div class="">February 2, 2013</div>
<h1>In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn’t Better ... It’s Brutal</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/catherine_rampell/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by CATHERINE RAMPELL"><span>CATHERINE RAMPELL</span></a></span></h6>
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<p>
Young graduates are in debt, out of work and <a title="Times article." href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/business/economy/as-graduates-move-back-home-economy-feels-the-pain.html">on their parents’ couches</a>. People in their 30s and 40s can’t afford to buy homes or have children. Retirees are earning <a title="Times article." href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/business/as-low-rates-depress-savers-governments-reap-the-benefits.html?pagewanted=all">near-zero interest on their savings</a>. </p>
<p>
In the current listless economy, every generation has a claim to having
been most injured. But the Labor Department’s latest jobs snapshot and
other recent data reports present a strong case for crowning baby
boomers as the greatest victims of the recession and its grim aftermath.
</p>
<p>
These Americans in their 50s and early 60s — those near <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/retirement/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about retirement." class="">retirement</a> age who do not yet have access to <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicare/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival health news about Medicare." class="">Medicare</a> and <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_security_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Social Security." class="">Social Security</a>
— have lost the most earnings power of any age group, with their
household incomes 10 percent below what they made when the recovery
began three years ago, according to Sentier Research, a data analysis
company. </p>
<p>
Their retirement savings and home values fell sharply at the worst
possible time: just before they needed to cash out. They are supporting
both aged parents and unemployed young-adult children, earning them the
inauspicious nickname “Generation Squeeze.” </p>
<p>
New research suggests that they may die sooner, because their health,
income security and mental well-being were battered by recession at a
crucial time in their lives. <a title="The study, at Web site the National Bureau of Economic Research." href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w18361">A recent study</a>
by economists at Wellesley College found that people who lost their
jobs in the few years before becoming eligible for Social Security lost
up to three years from their life expectancy, largely because they no
longer had access to affordable health care. </p>
<p>
“If I break my wrist, I lose my house,” said Susan Zimmerman, 62, a
freelance writer in Cleveland, of the distress that a medical emergency
would wreak upon her finances and her quality of life. None of the three
part-time jobs she has cobbled together pay benefits, and she says she
is counting the days until she becomes eligible for Medicare. </p>
<p>
In the meantime, Ms. Zimmerman has fashioned her own regimen of home
remedies — including eating blue cheese instead of taking penicillin and
consuming plenty of orange juice, red wine, coffee and whatever else
the latest longevity studies recommend — to maintain her health, which
she must do if she wants to continue paying the bills. </p>
<p>
“I will probably be working until I’m 100,” she said. </p>
<p>
As common as that sentiment is, the job market has been especially unkind to older workers. </p>
<p>
Unemployment rates for Americans nearing retirement are far lower than
those for young people, who are recently out of school, with fewer
skills and a shorter work history. But once out of a job, older workers
have a much harder time finding another one. Over the last year, the
average duration of unemployment for older people was 53 weeks, compared
with 19 weeks for teenagers, according to the Labor Department’s jobs
report released on Friday. </p>
<p>
The lengthy process is partly because older workers are more likely to
have been laid off from industries that are downsizing, like
manufacturing. Compared with the rest of the population, older people
are also more likely to own their own homes and be less mobile than
renters, who can move to new job markets. </p>
<p>
Older workers are more likely to have a disability of some sort, perhaps <a title="Times article." href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/business/economy/07disabled.html">limiting the range of jobs</a>
that offer realistic choices. They may also be less inclined, at least
initially, to take jobs that pay far less than their old positions.
</p>
<p>
Displaced boomers also believe they are victims of age discrimination,
because employers can easily find a young, energetic worker who will
accept lower pay and who can potentially stick around for decades rather
than a few years. </p>
<p>
“When you’re older, they just see gray hair and they write you off,”
said Arynita Armstrong, 60, of Willis, Tex. She has been looking for
work for five years since losing her job at a <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/loans/mortgages/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about mortgages." class="">mortgage</a>
company. “They’re afraid to hire you, because they think you’re a
health risk. You know, you might make their premiums go up. They think
it’ll cost more money to invest in training you than it’s worth it
because you might retire in five years. </p>
<p>
“Not that they say any of this to your face,” she added. </p>
<p>
When older workers do find re-employment, the compensation is usually
not up to the level of their previous jobs, according to data from the
Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. </p>
<p>
In a survey by the center of older workers who were laid off during the
recession, just one in six had found another job, and half of that group
had accepted pay cuts. Fourteen percent of the re-employed said the pay
in their new job was less than half what they earned in their previous
job. </p>
<p>
“I just say to myself: ‘Why me? What have I done to deserve this?’ ”
said John Agati, 56, of Norwalk, Conn., whose last full-time job, as a
merchandise buyer and product developer, ended four years ago when his
employer went out of business. </p>
<p>
That position paid $90,000, and his résumé lists stints at companies
like American Express, Disney and USA Networks. Since being laid off,
though, he has worked a series of part-time, low-wage, temporary
positions, including selling shoes at Lord & Taylor and making sales
calls for a limo company. </p>
<p>
The last few years have taken a toll not only on his family’s finances, but also on his feelings of self-worth. </p>
<p>
“You just get sad,” Mr. Agati said. “I see people getting up in the
morning, going out to their careers and going home. I just wish I was
doing that. Some people don’t like their jobs, or they have problems
with their jobs, but at least they’re working. I just wish I was in
their shoes.” </p>
<p>
He said he cannot afford to go back to school, as many younger people
without jobs have done. Even if he could afford it, economists say it is
unclear whether older workers like him benefit much from more
education. </p>
<p>
“It just doesn’t make sense to offer retraining for people 55 and
older,” said Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University
of Texas in Austin. “Discrimination by age, long-term unemployment, the
fact that they’re now at the end of the hiring queue, the lack of time
horizon just does not make it sensible to invest in them.” </p>
<p>
Many displaced older workers are taking this message to heart and leaving the labor force entirely. </p>
<p>
The share of older people applying for Social Security early spiked
during the recession as people sought whatever income they could find.
The penalty they will pay is permanent, as retirees who take benefits at
age 62 — as Ms. Zimmerman did, to help make her mortgage payments —
will receive <a title="The Social Security Administration’s explanation of how retirement age affects benefits." href="http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retire2/retirechart.htm">30 percent less</a>
in each month’s check for the rest of their lives than they would if
they had waited until full retirement age (66 for those born after
1942). </p>
<p>
Those not yet eligible for Social Security are increasingly applying for
another, comparable kind of income support that often goes to people
who expect never to work again: disability benefits. More than one in
eight people in their late 50s is now on some form of federal <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/insurance/life-and-disability-insurance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about disability insurance." class="">disability insurance</a>
program, according to Mark Duggan, chairman of the department of
business economics and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s
Wharton School. </p>
<p>
The very oldest Americans, of course, were battered by some of the same
ill winds that tormented those now nearing retirement, but at least the
most senior were cushioned by a more readily available social safety
net. More important, in a statistical twist, they may have actually
benefited from the financial crisis in the most fundamental way:
prolonged lives. </p>
<p>
Death rates for people over 65 have historically fallen during recessions, according to <a title="Text of study. (PDF)" href="http://econ.msu.edu/seminars/docs/uerhealth_2011_dec_2_2011v2.pdf">a November 2011 study</a>
by economists at the University of California, Davis. Why? The
researchers argue that weak job markets push more workers into accepting
relatively undesirable work at nursing homes, leading to better care
for residents. </p>
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