Unemployment jumps among seniors

St. Petersburg, Florida - Ray Roths, 60, has experience in almost every industry.

"I was a loan officer, a vice president of a bank. [I have] 30 years car sales and management experience. [I've done] home improvement sales," he said.

But, for the last three years he's been unemployed.

He searches the wanted ads every weekend, but the choices are slim. He says the Sunday paper used to have at least a full page of sales jobs. Now, the sales job listings take up less than one column, and Roths says 90 percent of them are telemarketing jobs.

The unemployment rate for workers ages 55 to 64 rose to 4.6 percent in November. That's a 70 percent increase for that group, compared to a year ago.

And, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute, workers 55 and older experienced one of the sharpest increases in unemployment of any age group between September and October.

As companies lay off older workers, more younger workers are shouldered with a workload increase without extra pay.

"When people are cutting back, they're cutting back on a lot of the senior population," said Bob Yakubisin of the American Association of Retired Persons Foundation Work Search Program.

The free program helps seniors submit online job applications, inventory their interests and abilities, and assess their skills. The program has 73 sites across the country, including two in Pinellas County.

Work Search's Pinellas Park location is at 7800 66th Street North. Their phone number is 727-547-0534. There's another location at 1150A 16th Street in Palm Harbor. The phone number for the Palm Harbor office is 727-785-1309.

The AARP also matches seniors and low-income job seekers with community resources that can help them finds jobs in their area.

Online, the AARP also details five job placement success stories, including a woman who got a job as a language specialist at Best Western.

WorkNet Pinellas is another program that helps job seekers of all ages. On their website, the program has a job search and even a calendar of recruiting events and job fairs.

Also, EmployFlorida.com links all of Florida's state and local workforce services and features a by-county job search option.