Age impacts unemployment and re-employment in the US according to new research

The Huffington Post reports on a new research article to be published in Psychological Bulletin suggesting that, based on an analysis of US figures, age has a significant impact on job search success after unemployment.  The full article is not yet available but one the authors (Connie Wangerg, a Carlson School professor of industrial relations) explained some of their key findings in the Huffington Post.  The article summarizes key findings as:

• someone 50 years or older is likely to be unemployed for 5.8 weeks longer than someone between the ages of 30 and 49, and 10.6 weeks longer than people between the ages of 20 and 29.
• the odds of being re-employed decrease by 2.6 percent for each one-year increase in age
• older workers find jobs that are lower in pay and less personally satisfying compared to their previous jobs.

It is not clear from the information available so far whether the data simply categorizes all over 50’s as one group of older workers or whether there is a more fine grained analysis of age categories.  It does not appear from what I have read that the results are analysed by gender.  Nevertheless it looks like an interesting study to examine in more depth.

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