Addressing the over 60 crowd at the Unemployement Offices

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2009 demographic, 6% of the unemployed are over 60. Granted, the majority of unemployed are younger professionals. However, the crowd over 60 is still required to attend unemployment meetings and listen to speeches that do not address their needs in the least. The focus is all about how to build a career. That's useless information for folks just shy of retirement age. These unfortunate souls don't care anything about building a career. They just want direction on how to survive until they can retire.

Every Sunday, I ride bikes with a friend of mine who is over 60 and unemployed. He's wasn't a high-priced CEO. He simply had a decent job he enjoyed. He worked 30 years for the company. A few months ago, it closed its doors, folding under the pressures of the economic downturn. For 30 years, he got up in the morning had his coffee and drove to work. Then suddenly he couldn't anymore. Financially it wasn't an option to take early retirement. He had to file unemployment, attend the meetings that didn't address his needs every week, and hope that he could find something, anything that would give him an income and occupy his mind.

For several years, he and his wife have watched their peer group move away from the stresses of city life. They had always enjoyed the company of their younger friends, but they missed having friends their own age. No matter how old you are, unemployment amplifies the need to connect, to be involved, even to be seen. Younger professionals have social networks online to connect them. If the older generation have gotten on these networks it's not to connect to their peers, it's more to stay in touch with their kids and grand kids.

This generation isn't accustom to talking about their woes, so in the case of unemployment, the isolation gap from their peer group widens. Loneliness threatens. Depression knocks - but many in this age group have never had the luxury of time to be depressed like the Anti-Depressant Generation whose parents' wealth served as a constant crutch for any unfortunate events. The over 60 crowd still feel the need to be useful, to offer their skills which in many cases are so unique, no one younger could even hope to have them. But the economy and the government agencies have turned a blind eye to them. They do not have any information for them. So like they have time and time again, this group of newly unemployed is having to find their own way in the dark.

How much time would it take for an unemployment office to consider this generation of workers? Do they have to pay for a marketing research study to convince them? Do you have to wait for a government action to be filed? Do they need a script? Maybe. But in the meantime, if they could even simply see them. Address them. Acknowledge they are sitting in the meeting. That would be a start.