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."
LOOKING FOR A JOB? Search age-friendly companies at Retirement Jobs. Whillock said losing his job was a huge blow to his self-esteem, and it didn't help that he couldn't find another company looking for someone whose specialty was working on vinyl tops and automobile upholstery.His unemployment payments covered his mortgage, and the salary his wife, Marsha, earned at Bethany Lutheran Village paid for everything else. "I basically became a house husband for a while," he said.In addition to preparing meals and looking for a job, Whillock said he took on jobs around the house like organizing the family garage. "If I just sat here watching television and thinking about being out of a job, I'd just go totally crazy."Since he couldn't find a job comparable to the one he'd had, Whillock started his own company, C&R Custom Upholstery, and started looking for customers. He stayed in touch with some of his former coworkers at the custom shop, and they directed business his way when they could."At about the time my unemployment ran out, I got to the point I had enough business to keep going," Whillock said. "It's hard, though, doing all the paperwork and customer relations myself."Being unemployed at middle age caught Glenn DeBerry of Riverside, Ohio, by surprise, too. He retired from the Air Force in 1996 after 24 years active duty and went to work for the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.DeBerry, 54, was a secretary for the superintendent of the department's Montgomery Development Center in Huber Heights.
State budget cuts forced the closing of Springview Development Center in Springfield, and a senior employee from Springview bumped DeBerry out of his job in July 2005."I was sitting there fat, dumb and happy thinking I had a job for life," DeBerry said "All of a sudden, I was an old geezer who had to go out there and compete with kids just out of college."DeBerry said he had some warning about the impending job loss, so he started his job search early, networking with old friends from the military and attending job fairs. On the day he was to leave his state job, he got a call offering him an office assistant position with a federal agency in the area for about the same pay.But the federal job wouldn't start for four or five months. Still, with unemployment payments coming in for six months, DeBerry felt fairly secure.Ultimately, DeBerry had to wait nearly nine months for the new job to start.The delay many people experience in getting a new job really puts them in a bind, said Earthale Barnes, coordinator of the Workforce Investment Act program."From the time you start the job search, it's usually about four months on average before you actually get a job," Barnes said. "There may be training you have to go through. There may be an interview process, lots of things that have to be done by human resources departments.
"They can find themselves taking two or three McDonald's-type jobs just to make it after their unemployment runs out."Things weren't quite that bad for DeBerry. He's divorced with no minor children to take care of."I had a little money from my Air Force pension coming in," he said. "Plus I was settling my mother's estate and had a little money from the sale of her house to keep me going."While waiting to go to work, DeBerry took advantage of classes arranged by Montgomery County's Job Center to update his computer skills.Barnes and Woodall said most of the employees who lose jobs they've had a long time, particularly manufacturing jobs, must be retrained to compete for available jobs.In many cases, they can go through short-term training programs that prepare them to work as truck drivers, nurses, medical billing clerks or other jobs in medicine. Most take a substantial pay cut."We show people the labor market information on what jobs are available and how much they usually pay," Barnes said."Plus we counsel them on how you make adjustments when you're making $10 less an hour."If you hear you're going to be laid off ...Don't postpone looking for a new job. Regardless of how long your unemployment benefits will last, the benefit might run out before you find a job, complete required training and go through the pre-employment process.
Take advantage of the job-search help available to you. County Job Centers can assist you in identifying available job opportunities, writing resumes and so on. The employer you're leaving may also offer transition assistance.Shore up your basic skills. Reading and basic math skills are critical in today's job market. If you have deficiencies in those areas, job counselors can steer you to appropriate education programs. You'll also need to learn job search skills.Assess your personal skills and interests. You don't necessarily have to look for a job like the one you're leaving. Do you have skills from a volunteer setting that might lead to a job? Do you have degrees or training you've never used?Expect change. The economy has changed, and jobs that used to be plentiful may no longer exist. You may need to train for an industry totally different from the one you're leaving. LOOKING FOR A JOB? Search age-friendly companies at Retirement Jobs. Source: Dayton Daily News.Powered by Yellowbrix.
Source: Money & Work
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