73

This is a few weeks old, but I felt it is relevant here. Noticeably absent from the "speculation" as to the reasons fewer people in their 50's are working is the elephant in the room: Ageism. I gave up searching for work because it's painfully obvious my capability is not the issue. AARP has permanent support education for 50+ people trying to get hired.

All I hear about with respect to frustrations being unable to find a job is focused on the youngest, while it's the eldest that are being forced out at alarming rates. The worst part is we don't have any recovery path, and some of us are supporting adult children who can't find work.

We either navigated all the pratfalls life throws at us and have savings enough to "survive", or we didn't, and we become another near invisible member of the predominantly elder population of homeless standing by intersections hoping for a handout.

Next January possibly millions of over 50 people thrown out of work and unable to find any job (even minimum wage jobs) will lose their health coverage, since Medicaid begins requiring 20 hours per week of work to qualify.

We are well beyond "fearing dystopia" now. We've been living it for a decade, some would say longer.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 17 points 1 week ago

This is me. I have done relatively well but have been single income and as I started making better pay my wifes medical issues got to where it was a decent chunk of change. So we have always lived far below our means because of extraneous costs. Lost my job like two months before th election. Almost got one about a month in but the other guy scored half a point higher on the assessment. At that point things just dried up and stayed that way for awhile. Its recoverd some but between the lethargic pace of hiring, ageism, and worse having no tech work for going on two years. Well I know im not a sought after canidate at this point with the current attitudes. I subsitute teach but you can't get a regular amount of work out of it. I keep hoping I can finagle something but so far nothing I have tried has worked. I was kinda lucky because we were used to saving for big bills and we stay away from debt to deal with what we have. Our place is old and needs renovation and we had been saving for that specifically do get disabled things in the bathrooms but also elsewhere. That has been what we have been drawing from. I have looked up on drawing from retirement accounts without penalty. Its kinda funny because I saw many a well of boomer not retiring even when they could into their 70's and such (never understood why someone would not want to retire). Looks like we are getting the opposite.

[-] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Damn dude, that's pretty rough :/ My partner has chronic health issues and lost their job like 2 months ago. Thank god I still have work. We're only 40 but in 20 years I fear i will be in a similar situation to you.

I am not optimistic about the future :\

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

I do worry about those younger. It looks like everything may drop out just befor retirement for folks my age but everything seems to get worse the further on someone was born.

this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
73 points (95.1% liked)

Work Reform

17432 readers
290 users here now

A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.

Our Philosophies:

Our Goals

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS