'Aging out of the workforce' at age 45-65'... What? Really, according to DOLA

On Sunday the Denver Post reported that Colorado has 'improved' its ranking, coming in at 5th in nation for net 'in-magration' during 2011. Included in the article, titled Net in-migration to Colorado from other states growing was the following, which came from the state demographer, Elizabeth Garner who works in the Department of Local Affairs [DOLA]:

"Colorado has a big bulge of people in the 45-to-65 age range, many of whom moved here in the 1970s and '80s.
Those people are "aging out" of the labor force, being replaced by younger workers.
"Basically, this means that we are creating new jobs for people but they are not new jobs at the firm," Garner said..."

Unbelievable. According to DOLA, at age 46 I'm 'aging out of the workforce'?! WHAT?!!!

The article goes on to suggest that all of these new migrants [who are apparently fortunate enough to purchase real estate] are not creating enough economic activity to 'lift the construction industry' - as if all of of the unemployed and under-employed have historically worked in the construction industry. Again, quotes from the state's DOLA demographer are included.)

So, that 'big bulge of workers' in the state who are between the ages of 45-65 are 'aging out of the workforce' ? Where are all of these workers at?! Where are they employed, or once they lose their jobs, where do they go; what happens to them?

Maybe they're part of the 'hidden unemployed' - those who are allegedly 'dropping out of the workforce' because they can't find a job - and are therefore no longer included in the unemployment numbers?!

Please see the Denver Post article, "Study: Colorado added few jobs in last decade even as labor force grew" which included the following:

"The decade has been a really difficult one in Colorado. There was substantial growth in the labor force but not in jobs," said CSU economist Martin Shields, who wrote the report with CSU economist Michael Marturana. "In many ways, Colorado has lost a decade."

Writer Gregg Griffin added "the study...painted a grim picture of the state economy from 2000 to 2010, as two recessions wiped away growth across much of the state."

Also, please note that, like the national level of unemployment, Colorado's unemployment rate has fallen precipitously, coming in at 8.0 percent in November. From the CDLE's November jobs report:

Over the year, the unemployment rate is down nine-tenths of one percentage point from 8.9 percent in November 2010. The number of Coloradans participating in the labor force increased 45,000, total employment increased 66,300 and the number of unemployed decreased 21,300. The national unemployment rate declined from 9.8 to 8.6 percent from November 2010 to November 2011.

So, the number of unemployed fell by 21,300, while the labor force increased - and while a net total of 25,500 new jobs were created (27,300 private sector jobs less 1800 government jobs lost). Yet, as the Colorado Center on Law & Policy people reported in September (just 2 months prior to the November employment data), Colorado has a jobs shortfall of more than 252,000 jobs.** Nationally, the jobs shortfall is just short of 11 million jobs according to testimony provided by the National Employment Law Project at a Senate committee hearing held in December.

Or maybe these boomers who are aging out of the workforce at age 45 and up are part of the MASSIVE numbers of under-employed workers in this state and nationally - tens of millions of under-employed [ie minimum wage] workers who, again, are not counted in the 'official' unemployment rate [as measured by U-3 vs the broader measure U-6 which indicates the unemployment rate is more like 16-17% - and is still a conservative measure]? Please see my latest article, 'Attacking America's jobless as part time, low wage jobs fill the gap'.

And maybe, just maybe, they're all part of the unparalleled discrimination in this country?!Discriminatory hiring practices based on current employment status - and age - is becoming increasingly obvious.

This is not the first time the issue of 'in-migration' and its imact on the employment situation has been written about. In my article dated May 24, 2011, As the unemployment numbers 'improve' the 99ers become even more invisible', I wrote the following

In another report this morning, writers at the Denver Post are talking about the number of people moving to Colorado from surrounding states - a problem which creates havoc for job seekers in a state that is producing very few jobs and has seen a full one percentage point increase in its unemployment rate over the last year....

As has been previously reported more than one time in recent weeks & months, the state of Colorado has a jobs shortfall of nearly 125,000 jobs and the entire decade between 2000 and 2010 has been dubbed the 'lost decade' because so many people have moved into the state while very few jobs were created over the same ten year period.

This news about the number of people who continue to move to Colorado comes following Friday's April jobs report which indicated that Colorado's unemployment rate, which stood at a record 9.3% in February, dropped from 9.2% in March to 8.8% in April. Statements made by Alexandra Hall at the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment [CDLE] warned that 'as job opportunities become even slightly more plentiful, the number of people who had dropped out of the labor force may return and prompt more people moving to the state. The unemployment rate could bump upward due to these possible factors.'

For all of those who only see the glass half-full perspective and refuse to acknowledge the destroyed lives - millions of (formerly middle class) American workers who have lost everything, there is another side - and another perspective to this story but, sadly, until and unless you've been one of the millions of people who are:

a) NO LONGER COUNTED

and then, (as a result of no longer being counted)

B) NO LONGER MATTER (in context of the so-called 'good news' being reported by the politicians and repeated verbatim by the main stream media)

you probably just won't get it - at least not entirely.

The good news is that some people actually do get it, including some high-ranking lawmakers in Washington. The issues faced by the long-term unemployed - lack of jobs and blatant (increasing) levels of discrimination are huge. A Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pensions) committee hearing was held on December 8 regarding these issues.

In November, yours truly was contacted by one of the HELP committee staff members in Sen Tom Harkin's (D-IA, who chairs the HELP committee) reached out to me. We spoke at length (45+ mins ) about issues faced by 99ers, older workers, un- & under-employed workers such as myself.

Here's a link to the hearing. testimony is available for download on the site, includes this except from NELP (National Employment Law Project):

Official unemployment counts do not include the under-employed—those who want full-time hours but are able only to get part-time work—or individuals "marginally attached" to the labor force, that is those who want to work and have looked for jobs in the past year but not in the preceding month. Including these individuals in official unemployment counts (raising the September count from 13.9 million to 25.6 million) would nearly double the number of potential unemployed or under-employed applicants for each vacancy. In addition, in the most recent employment report (for November), labor force participation declined by more than 300,000, and adding these individuals to the official counts of the unemployed would further increase the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings. Of course, anecdotal evidence suggests there are numerous applicants for every job opening, with thousands showing up at job fairs.

The NELP testimony also includes the following (emphasis mine):

There is no official data on how frequently unemployed workers are denied consideration for jobs because of their employment status, but the openness of the exclusionary ads noted above and the experiences jobless workers shared with NELP suggest the practice may be fairly common. That suspicion is borne out by comments of human resource consultants and recruiters willing to go on record about the practice. Rich Thompson, vice president of learning and performance for Adecco Group North America, the world’s largest staffing firm, told
CNNMoney.com last June that companies’ interest only in applicants who are currently working "is more prevalent than it used to be…I don’t have hard numbers," he said, but three out of the last four conversations I’ve had about openings, this requirement was brought up."11

Bottom line: the 'older workers' aged 45-65 are not 'aging out of the workforce'.
They are being 'discriminated out of the workforce' to the extent that there are any jobs available as literally millions of jobs which have been systematically eliminate from our economy as a result of this recession. In addition, MILLIONS of unemployed workers are no longer counted in the monthly jobs/unemployment data as duly noted in the data above.

As another commenter on the article wrote

"The most absurd thing about this entire story is the lumping together of several generations of people (those between the ages of 45 to 65) under the assumption that they somehow must "age out of the economy." For starters, who can afford to retire at 65? Second, an entire career can be made between the ages of 45 and 65.

This story endorses the idea that age discrimination after 45 is fine, and that people over that age are no longer capable, able or willing to work, contribute, thrive, innovate, be masters of their fields, etc., and that only those who are younger can have careers, jobs, etc. Why isn't anyone here calling the reporter and the economist he quoted out on that bit of bigotry and absurdity about human potential?"

Also, for whatever it's worth, a call has been put into the local affairs department (DOLA) asking for more information related to this growing demographic of Coloradans aged 45-65 who are 'aging out of the workforce.' If you look, you'll see on p.29 of the report issued by Elizabeth Garner in Jan 2011, 'Households at risk - Single Older Women'. At first glance, this seems to confirm the arguement I've been making all along (although I don't think it's just women in this position). More to follow if & when more information becomes available.

Great economic development plan: Colorado has been luring hundreds of thousands of people to the state, while creating NO jobs...a study released by CSU last year emphasized this problem - calling the decade (200-2010) the 'lost decade'...

Go all of you Colorado economic development people....GREAT JOB...idiots! These are PEOPLE - PEOPLE'S LIVES - we are talking about here.

**Note: The following was included in a report from the Colorado Center on Law & Policy [CCLP] in September, 2011:

Poverty has increased substantially in Colorado and across the country, according to preliminary state Census Bureau figures released today. Roughly one in every eight Coloradans was living in poverty in 2009 and 2010, including 192,000 Coloradans who fell into poverty since 2000.

Some other significant figures for Colorado in the new data:

Colorado's poverty rate hit 12.3 percent in 2009-10, an increase of 2.5 percent from the start of the recession.

An estimated 617,000 Coloradans live in families with incomes less than the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that's $22,350 this year; for a single person, it's annual income of $10,890.

Median household income fell by $4,356 since 2007-08.

CCLP - Jobs Shortfall (report dated Dec, '11)

Colorado's jobs deficit, or the difference between the number of jobs Colorado has and the number it needs to regain its pre-recession employment rate, is 258,400. That number reflects the recent employment data combined with the 155,600 jobs it needs to keep up with a 6.6 percent growth in working-age population in the 47 months since the recession began.5 (Figures 7-8) While Colorado has shown steady sign of economic improvement and stabilization in 2011, the state has not recovered from the Great Recession. As elected officials at the state and federal levels make policy choices to deal with budget shortfalls, they should avoid decisions that threaten to throw a very tentative recovery into reverse. Putting workers back to work needs to be the primary goal for lawmakers.

and, from the September 'recovery watch' report from CCLP:

Long-term unemployment
Another useful measurement to gauge the depth of the recession’s damage is long-term unemployment (LTU), which measures the share of the unemployed who have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. The LTU in the current recession is notable for its severity, indicating the economy is struggling to create jobs and return people to work. (Figure 5) While previous recessions have caused a short spike in the LTU, in this current recovery, 41.3 percent of Colorado’s unemployed people have been jobless for at least six months.