Mon, Nov 29, 2010
Too Old To Hire, Too Young To Retire? The New Sandwich Generation
Posted by Kathy O'Reilly
To take a pulse of what’s top of mind with job seekers, the White House recently approached Monster to tap into the large community of job seekers we engage with on Facebook.
Ask the White House gave job seekers the opportunity to present questions on what is currently being done, or what could be done, to help stimulate job growth.
Any time the administration turns to social media as a way of engaging with the American people, the news gets attention and Ask the White House was no exception. Online sites from Mashable to the Huffington Post covered the week-long initiative and reported on some of the top-line themes to emerge from job seekers during the process.
The White House confirmed Austan Goolsbee, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, has responded to the top six questions (based on the most “likes” within Monster’s Facebook community) in a series of videos which were made available to job seekers on our Facebook page beginning Monday, Nov. 29.
One theme to emerge during our Ask the White House engagement came from 40 and 50-somethings, who point out they are literally in a catch-22 in their job search quest.
For this age group of displaced workers, the challenge they now face could potentially make them the new sandwich generation of job seekers. The theme of ‘too old to hire, too young to retire‘ is resonating as one of the leading trends in job search challenges with seekers, and grabbing news headlines.
To complicate matters further, this new sandwich generation of job seekers is also the same generation struggling to put their own children through college and in many circumstances, caring for aging parents simultaneously. And while in previous years, folks in this age group who were displaced ended up taking jobs they were highly over-qualified to perform.
Although some employers are willing to “stock up on discounted talent,” this option still presents a challenge as this demographic is now going head to head with younger workers who are willing to work for less money than their older colleagues.
Does the administration have a solution to solve the challenges facing this new ‘sandwich generation’ of job seekers?
Here’s Mr. Goolsbee’s response to the Ask the White House question on age discrimination posed by our Facebook community:
To view the White House’s answer to other selected questions from the Monster.com community, click here.
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6 Responses to “Too Old To Hire, Too Young To Retire? The New Sandwich Generation”
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29. Nov, 2010
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Global Recruitment, Beachrcrtr(LeesaM) and Cathleen Hampton, Monster Employers. Monster Employers said: New @ Monsterthinking.com: : Too Old To Hire, Too Young To Retire? The New Sandwich Generation? http://mnstr.me/hOrFol [...]
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10. Dec, 2010
[...] for SEO. But we also have an editorial policy about not talking about politics unless it involves our Facebook page. This week, that didn’t leave us with much but the Army-Navy game, and even that’s a little [...]
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December 2, 2010 at 4:19 PM
The Great Recession hit the American workforce hard. October employment numbers are out and the hiring landscape is looking better, but we’re not in the clear quite yet.
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December 2, 2010 at 5:01 PM
@SeBas, Thanks for your comment! We’d also like to recommend checking out the Monster Employment Index for November, which was released today. It’s a valuable resource for understanding and interpreting the data driving these trends. Curious to know what you think! Check it out: http://about-monster.com/content/monster-employment-index-annual-growth-rate-13-november Thanks again for sharing your expertise with our community & joining the conversation.
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December 9, 2010 at 2:08 AM
I have a great suggestion. President Obama gives companies a tax break for hiring anyone that’s been unemployed over six months. Why not give tax breaks to employers for hiring experienced 40 – 50 year olds. Hold companies accountable and have the companies audited to see how many older workers have been hired.
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December 9, 2010 at 2:10 AM
In addition, if they failed to hire older workers, why not penalized employers and/or create a tax penalty, maybe double the taxes they already pays.
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