Friday, April 17, 2009
(AARP)
With the recent economic plunge and the steep rise in unemployment, more and more Americans are being affected. Stay-at-home moms, who had previously set their resumes down in exchange for being with the children as they grew up, are now being forced to reconsider their decision and rejoin the workforce. For many, this has proven challenging for a variety of reasons. Some potential employers are not sympathetic to time-gaps in their work experience during which women were at home with their children. In other cases, women are being turned away for being overqualified for jobs that they need simply to have an income.
Meanwhile, unemployed members of the baby boom generation, those 45-62 years old, are seeing longer periods of unemployment than younger workers. While statistics show that they are less likely to be fired in the first place because of the experience they have, once they are let go, they are finding it harder to be hired again because they are battling stereotypes like lower energy and less adaptability. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “on average, laid-off workers in this age group were out of work 22.2 weeks in 2008, compared with 16.2 weeks for younger workers.”
-Jackie Gallegos
Recession Pushes Many Stay-at-Home-Moms Back into the Labor Force (Leslie Brody, McClatchy-Tribune Newspapers)
Longer Unemployment for Those 45 and Older (Michael Luo, New York Times)
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