The Employment Situation, January 2010: Unemployment Rate for Older Workers Falls1

[Commonground]

1 Unless otherwise specified, ?older? in this alert
refers to persons aged 55 and over. Employment
and unemployment figures are seasonally
adjusted unless otherwise noted.

Excerpt:







Concluding Observations
The employment situation for older
workers was brighter in January than in
December: The unemployment rate was
down by 4/10 of a percentage point; the
number of older workers with jobs rose
somewhat; and the labor force
participation rate for persons aged 55
and older actually increased by 1/10 of
a percentage point (from 39.8 percent to
39.9 percent). As labor force
participation rate rose, the number and
percentage of older persons not in the
labor force fell slightly. Most older
persons who are not in the labor force
indicated that they are not interested in
working.
Still, nearly 2 million persons aged 55
and older were unemployed and
searching for work in January 2010. In
addition, some 1.4 million older
Americans reported that they would like
to be working but were not in the labor
force (i.e., not working or looking for
work).

http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/ppi/econ-sec/fs166-employment.pdf