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<div class="">August 26, 2013</div>
<h1>Set Back by Recession, and Shut Out of Rebound</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/michael_winerip/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by MICHAEL WINERIP"><span>MICHAEL WINERIP</span></a></span></h6>
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<p>
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — In September 2012, it appeared that the world was John
Fugazzie’s frozen oyster. He was in charge of dairy and frozen foods
for the A.&P. supermarket chain, making $125,000 a year. </p>
<p>
He was also a guest that month at a White House forum on joblessness, in recognition of his work creating <a href="http://www.neighbors-helping-neighbors.com/">Neighbors-helping-Neighbors U.S.A.</a>,
a volunteer networking organization with 28 chapters in New Jersey
serving 1,200 unemployed, mainly white-collar, baby boomers. “John has
one of the best volunteer organizations out there,” said Ben Seigel, a
deputy director at the Labor Department. “He’s tireless and always
upbeat.” </p>
<p>
Lately Mr. Fugazzie has been feeling a little weary and beat down. One
morning last October, just before his 57th birthday, he was laid off
and, carrying a box of belongings from his office, driven home in a car
service hired by the company. In the 10 months since, he has applied for
more than 400 positions and had 10 interviews, but still has no job.
</p>
<p>
He and his family are living in his 88-year-old mother’s home, and last
month he awoke at 4:30 a.m., sweating profusely, in the midst of a heart
attack. </p>
<p>
As happens to many Americans, when he lost his job, he lost his health
insurance. He now owes $171,569.44 for the six nights he spent at the
hospital. </p>
<p>
And so on the evening of Aug. 15, at a meeting of the job club he
himself started here two years ago, he told the others he was just like
them. “I need a job,” he said. “I need to make money now.” </p>
<p>
Most of the 15 men and women meeting at the library in this prosperous
suburb were middle-aged or older, people who had worked all their lives,
but lost jobs in the recession and its aftermath and have not been able
to get back to where they were. Many of them worry that they never
will, in part because of discrimination by employers against older
workers. </p>
<p>
On the statistical surface, boomers seem better off than other age
groups. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment
rate for workers 55 to 64 (the category that best matches boomers, who
range from 48 to 67) was 5.4 percent in July, compared with 7.4 percent
for the general population. </p>
<p>
But almost every other number from the bureau makes it clear that while
the economy may be improving, a substantial number of older workers who
lost jobs — even those lucky enough to be re-employed — are still
suffering. Two-thirds in that age group who found work again are making
less than they did in their previous job; their median salary loss is 18
percent compared with a 6.7 percent drop for 20- to 24-year-olds.
</p>
<p>
The re-employment rate for 55- to 64-year-olds is 47 percent and 24
percent for those over 65, compared with 62 percent for 20- to
54-year-olds. And finding another job takes far longer: 46 weeks for
boomers, compared with 20 weeks for 16- to 24-year-olds. </p>
<p>
Nor are those who believe age discrimination was a factor likely to have
much luck in court. In 2009, just as the economy was hitting
rock-bottom, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that toughened the
standard for proving bias. </p>
<p>
“It’s easier for younger workers to bounce back,” says Mr. Seigel of the
Labor Department. “They don’t have many financial obligations. Older
workers are supporting families; they may be supporting parents. They
can’t afford to spend two years going back for a degree to retrain.”
</p>
<p>
At the Aug. 15 meeting, Barbara Braun, who worked as a marketing
director for a pharmaceutical company, said she wasn’t able to relocate
to California when the company moved. “I have a mother with Alzheimer’s,
I think it would have killed her,” she said. “Our lives are full of
complications we didn’t have at 35.” </p>
<p>
They have no doubt that their age is held against them, yet work to keep
hopeful. When a woman suggested shaving a decade off her résumé and not
posting a photo on networking and job search sites to hide her age, Mr.
Fugazzie advised against it. “When you go to the interview, you’re
going to look like who you are,” he said. “To waste time hiding it when
you’re only going to lose at the other end makes no sense. If they don’t
want someone your age, you don’t want them.” </p>
<p>
What he does recommend is lowering expectations. “You’re not likely to
be the department head,” he said, “so sell yourself as a team player who
will work with younger people and help train them.” </p>
<p>
Since the Supreme Court ruling, most lawyers won’t even take age
discrimination cases. In an effort to change that, a bill has been filed
in the Senate each of the past several years, aimed at making it easier
to bring a discrimination lawsuit. </p>
<p>
The latest legislation has rare bipartisan support; Senator Tom Harkin,
Democrat of Iowa, and Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa,
are co-sponsors. “Older Americans have immense value to our society and
our economy,” Mr. Grassley said in a recent news release. “They deserve
the protections Congress originally intended.” </p>
<p>
In the last Congress, along with the Democratic majority in the Senate,
six Republicans backed the legislation, although two, both moderates,
Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, are no
longer in the Senate. Cristina Martin-Firvida, a legislative specialist
at AARP, says the bill has the votes to pass the Senate, but to have a
chance at becoming law, more Republican senators would need to get
behind it, which might then persuade the Republicans who control the
House to take up the measure. </p>
<p>
At the Ridgewood meeting, people discussed job-hunting strategies. Karen
Clements, a paralegal, said she had four résumés ready to go, each
emphasizing a different skill: bookkeeping, S.E.C. compliance, fraud
investigation and intellectual property rights. </p>
<p>
She described a friend who is dressed in business attire by 4 a.m.
Mondays, so she’ll be ready the moment an opportunity is posted online.
If the firm wants to do a Skype interview, said Ms. Clements, her friend
is dressed for Skyping. “By Tuesday they’ll have 1,000 résumés and the
window will be closed.” </p>
<p>
“It’s like Wayne Gretzky says,” Ms. Braun told them: “You have to skate to where the puck will be.” </p>
<p>
They discussed the importance of following up any contact with thank-you
e-mails and handing out lots of business cards, though it’s tricky to
identify yourself when you have no job. “Be careful of the title you
give yourself — you don’t want to sound dated,” said Ms. Braun, whose
business card reads, “Barbara J. Braun, principal, BarbaraJBraun LLC,
Connect Goals to Extraordinary Outcomes.” </p>
<p>
Several mentioned the importance of LinkedIn, the business networking site. </p>
<p>
“You have to have at least 500 contacts,” said Lisa Sepetjian, who has
been an accounts manager for banks and small-business lenders. “Any less
shows you don’t care; you’re not in the game.” </p>
<p>
Ms. Braun described how she was able to go from 50 LinkedIn contacts to 500 in just a week. </p>
<p>
“I’m at 4,200,” Mr. Fugazzie said. </p>
<p>
“I don’t want to know 500 people,” Ms. Sepetjian said. “But I want
people to know I’m not some baby boomer sitting at home eating bonbons.”
</p>
<p>
At 8:50 p.m., when a librarian announced that it was closing time, many
were still networking. Afterward, eight handed me their business cards
and several sent follow-up e-mails thanking me for coming. </p>
<p>
By 10:30 p.m., even before I got home, the first of 10 follow-up e-mails
had arrived from Mr. Fugazzie. Attached were testimonials from five
people; copies of four certificates of commendation for
Neighbors-helping-Neighbors; and a letter of commendation to the group
from the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, that began “Dear Friends.”
</p>
<p>
Also attached was an invitation to a May 16, 2013, meeting at the White
House to discuss long-term unemployment, which Mr. Fugazzie hadn’t been
able to attend. “I really wanted to go,” he said. “I could have made
some important contacts, but my youngest son, Tyler, was graduating from
the College of New Jersey on the same day and how could I miss that?”
</p>
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