Laid-Off Middle-Aged Workers Face Job-Finding Ordeal

Alex Whillock of Dayton, Ohio, had worked for the same auto customizing shop for nearly 20 years when his employers cut him from the payroll.

"It was September of 2005," Whillock said. "I went to get my paycheck, and they said they were letting me go. No warning or anything."

Whillock, 47, is not alone. Over the last few years, local companies large and small have been slashing their payrolls or shutting down completely, leaving long-time employees -- many of them well into middle age -- floundering in a dwindling job market.

A little over a year later, Whillock said he's self-employed and his income is about half what it used to be.

"I didn't want to be a middle-aged man looking for a job, but that's the way it turned out," Whillock said.

Delores Woodall, a team leader for the Workforce Investment Act program at Montgomery County's Job Center, has counseled people looking for work for most of her adult life. She said many of the people she's worked with over the last couple years have been in the same job 10 to 20 years or more and have no experience being unemployed.

"They come in, and they want to get another job as quickly as possible," Woodall said. "They think it's going to be easy. They're motivated, but they've got a lot to learn."

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