Report: Layoffs toughest on young, older workers

From Salt Lake Tribune | By Mike Schneider And Errin Haines

The Associated Press | Updated: 09/07/2009 10:27:32 AM MDT

Economy » Those recently out of school and soon-to-be retirees find situations uniquely bad.

This Sept. 1, 2009 photo shows Marcus Wells looking for... (Paul Sakuma / The Associated Press)

• Orlando, Fla. » Marcus Wells and Shirley Walker view their economic prospects from opposite ends of the age spectrum.

Wells, 25, was initially optimistic about his prospects for finding a new job after he was laid off as a systems analyst in January in San Jose, Calif. Now, unemployment has begun to wear on the him, and he believes his age has factored into his frustration.

"More experienced people are getting hired, and they're downgrading their skills to get the job," Wells said. "I feel like I'm competing with older workers, not college graduates. It wears on your confidence."

Walker, 58, lost her job running a nonprofit which helped minority women in business in

*Marcus Wells looks for work on his computer in his living room in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)Orlando and hasn't had any luck finding new work in the three months since.

"What they tell us is that they're looking for more mature and experienced workers, but they want us to work for less, or what they could pay younger people to do," she said recently outside an Orlando job fair. "Maybe younger people would be willing or able to accept lesser pay."

Would-be retirees have watched their savings dwindle and health care costs soar, while workers recently out of school and burdened by debt try to advance in careers that no longer have room for them.

The results show up on the map: Places with high concentrations of people in their late 20s or nearing what they thought would be their retirement age are feeling the recession the hardest, as measured by The Associated Press Economic Stress Index. The index assigns each county a score from 1 to 100, with higher numbers reflecting greater stress, based on its unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcy rates.

California's Santa Clara County, where Wells lives, registered 14.41 on the stress index in July, the most recent month for which figures are available, while Walker's Orange County, Fla., came in at 15.76, both well above the average county's 10.54.

The groups associated with the highest stress scores in each U.S. county are men and women between ages 25 and 29 and women over age 55. That doesn't necessarily mean having a high percentage of people in those groups causes a county's economic health to worsen, though the two appear to go hand in hand.

Experts said a variety of factors may be at play.

Young adults are more at risk for losing their jobs and homes in a recession, while people later in life are more likely to declare bankruptcy in order to protect their assets, said Tay McNamara, director of research at the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College.

Compounding the pain for some young workers can be big bills from their careers as students. The average undergraduate finishes college with $17,700 in debt at four-year public schools and $22,375 in debt at four-year private schools. Also, student loan provider Sallie Mae reported this year that seniors graduated from college with an average credit card debt of more than $4,100 in 2008, up from $2,900 four years earlier.