Carlos Holder has worked as a cook, a driver, a custodian and
“I’m just looking for anything that can help me,” the Sun City
resident said.
Even though nationally and in Arizona, the number of unemployed
seniors is fairly low, programs at the Banner Olive Branch Senior
Center in Sun City indicate a different issue.
Unemployment rates
for people ages 55 to 64 was 5.9 percent in 2009
in Arizona, and the rate for people 65 or older was 8.0 percent;
the total unemployment number for Arizona in 2009, however, was 10
percent, according to numbers from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
“The bills are piling up for me,” Holder said.
Holder
said even with retirement benefits, Social Security, and
disability checks from Veterans Affairs, it’s still not enough.
He’s received some help from Olive Branch, where he visits two or
three times a week, but he still needs more money coming in.
Ivy
Shirley, the director at Olive Branch, said the job-related
programs at the senior center have seen an influx of job seekers in
the last few years. The various workshops offered have doubled in
attendance, and the twice-yearly job fair draws about 500 people.
Beyond that, Shirley said the senior center helps job-seekers who
are in their 70s or early 80s, whereas attendees used to be
younger.
One such workshop offered last Wednesday gave seniors
tips for a
successful interview.
About 40 people gathered at Olive Branch to
listen to a
presentation from Banner Health Recruitment employees Andrea Molina
and Bertha Almarez, a follow-up to a resume writing workshop
offered earlier this month.
By a show of hands, most of the class
was actively looking for a
job, but only a few had been granted interviews.
Molina and
Almarez reiterated points about the importance of both a
clean resume and filling out an employer’s application form, and
they told the attendees that dressing professionally and being on
time for an interview are key.
Carol Jankowski, the volunteer
coordinator for the workshop and
other Olive Branch job programs, said that many seniors are nervous
going into an interview because they know they might be at a
disadvantage compared to their younger counterparts.
“It can be
very hard for an older person to go out there,” she
said.
Kim Johnson, also of Sun City, is in a similar situation to
Holder.
She needs a job to cover the bills Social Security doesn’t.
“When
you’re a senior, you’re on your own,” Johnson said, although
she calls the staff and volunteers and Olive Branch “angels” who
provide meals and have even helped pay utility bills through the
center’s need-based programs.
Johnson said since she looks younger
than she is, an interview
might go well, but it stops there.
“It seems when they find out
how old I am, I’m out the door,” she
said.
Shirley said Olive Branch doesn’t use any specific
statistics when
putting together its programs, but instead goes off of the need
they see in the community.
For people 55 years of age and older,
the Arizona Department of
Commerce shows a small drop in the number of claimants of
unemployment benefits from August of 2009 to August of 2010.
Carole
Corr, an assistant at the senior center who also helped
organize the workshops, explained that many of their guests have
lost investments and may have even lost their homes.
“We hear a
lot of hard luck stories here at the center,” Corr said.
“It’s not easy to make ends meet.”
Jankowski explained while some
seniors, like Carlos Holder and Kim
Johnson, may need to go back to work for financial reasons, some
people also just want something to do.
Deanna Neff of Surprise
falls into that category.
“I like working with people. I like to
do work,” she said after the
interview workshop, which she thought was helpful.
While people
like Neff are looking for a job to fill their days,
others are struggling to pay their bills.
According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, nationally, the number of
people in poverty actually declined for seniors 65 and older (from
3.7 million in 2008 to 3.4 million in 2009). That is a change from
9.7 percent in 2008 to 8.9 percent in 2009.
“There’s a lot of need
out there,” Jankowski said.
She is also organizing a senior job
fair on Oct. 6 at the United
Church of Sun City, next door to Olive Branch at 11250 N. 107th
Ave. Twelve to fifteen employers looking to hire seniors will be on
hand to take resumes and chat with job seekers.
“People over 55
are more and more in need of employment and there
are not a lot of opportunities out there,” Jankowski said.
Contact
the Banner Olive Branch Senior Center at 623-974-6797 for
more information about the job fair and other job programs.
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Posted on YourWestValley.com : Wednesday, September 29, 2010 10:19 am | NORA AVERY-PAGE