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Age Counts in Hiring, the Older Jobless Find

By JOHN W. FOUNTAIN

HICAGO, Nov. 10 - Robert Linn expects that each day could be his lucky day, though it was winter the last time he had a job, and the wind is blowing cold again.

An accountant, Mr. Linn was laid off nine months ago as a controller at Aon Risk Services. He still has a monthly $2,600 mortgage and tax payment on his four-bedroom house in Winnetka, a suburb north of here, and the expense of raising a family. He and his wife, Fleury, who works part time, have a daughter who is a freshman in high school and are looking ahead to college costs.

Mr. Linn's savings and state unemployment benefits, he said, are enough to tide them over until he lands a new job, although continued news of layoffs and a saturated market of highly qualified, and younger, workers offers little solace.

At 58, Mr. Linn - like many other Americans 50 or older who have lost their career jobs in a new, less-predictable economy - worries that he may never have another job as good as the one he had, which paid more than $100,000 a year. Like Mr. Linn, some of the older unemployed say their hard luck in job hunting has less to do with their qualifications and ability than with their age.

Age is "very definitely a factor," Mr. Linn said.

"There are very few ads that say 10-plus years of experience or 15-plus years of experience," he added. "In other words, if you have more experience than that it's a presumption that you're overqualified or they don't want people that are older."

His résumé does not hide his age, and he said, "I respond to those ads and get no responses."

Economists do not know whether the downturn affects those in their 50's and 60's more than younger workers. A study by the International Longevity Center-USA, a research group in Manhattan, showed that times were changing for older workers. In the recession of the early 80's, the study said, men ages 45 to 59 were less likely to lose their jobs than those 25 to 39. By the recession of the early 90's, seniority did not provide as much security, and older men were just as likely to be laid off as younger men.

If and when some older workers land jobs, some experts say, they tend to find lower-paying, more temporary, low-skill or impermanent service or consulting jobs instead of those that they have dreamed of, those they have spent their lives building reputations and careers.

The problem is not age alone, said Hilarie Lieb, a Northwestern University professor of labor economics.

"The economy is not as strong as it was in the past, and demographically, there are a lot more people hitting this age," Professor Lieb said about workers over 50. "People expect to earn more when they have more experience. So they tend to be higher-salaried workers, which can be a deterrent for employers."

Mayer Freed, a professor of labor and employment law at the Northwestern Law School, said that "it's not such an unusual pattern for people to lose their jobs" in a sputtering economy and at a point in their careers where it can be hard to find re-employment at comparable levels.

"There is probably some preference given by employers to younger workers, and in principle, that's illegal," Professor Freed said. "Federal law is quite clear that it is illegal to base decisions like that on age. But it is not easy to enforce that law."

Some employers may prefer younger people, he said, expecting them to stay longer after investing time and money training them.

"It may also be a result of stereotyped thinking, that people are on a downward slope once they reach a certain age," Professor Freed said.

A result is that older prospects are often left out in the cold. George Putnam, an economist with the Illinois Employment Security Department, said laid-off workers 55 or older were in general 10 percent less likely than 35-year-olds to find work.

That may be bad news in light of the figures that show the Chicago unemployment rate through September at 6.3 percent, up from 5.4 percent in 2001. Statewide, the rate was 6.3 percent, up from 5.6, and nationally it was 5.6, up from 5 percent.

Workers across the spectrum have been affected. Bogdan Polowniak, a union bricklayer for 20 years, made $30.15 an hour until he was recently laid off. Mr. Polowniak, 47, wearing an American flag bandanna on his head at an unemployment office here, said he was wondering whether his best days were behind him. He is married with three children.

"There's work going on, but not enough for everybody," Mr. Polowniak said. "I think they're always looking for younger people. They're stronger, faster. The older you get, you slow down a little bit."

His friend Stan Puckowski, 51, who went to the office with him and is also a bricklayer, considers himself lucky not to have a family to worry about. But, Mr. Puckowski said, being jobless means that he has no money to send to relatives in Poland.

If not for his veteran's benefits, Charles Curtis, 51, an unemployed construction worker, said he would "be in trouble." Mr. Curtis said that his unemployment benefits had run out long ago and that he was living off food stamps.

"I'm out here trying every day to work," he said. "It's just discouraging."

What is an older worker to do?

Like Mr. Linn, Tom Walsh, 60, has turned to Operation ABLE, which stands for Ability Based on Long Experience. The agency here helps unemployed workers, with emphasis for those over 50, in finding jobs and training. Mr. Walsh, a computer programmer, lost his job a year ago in layoffs at Sears, where he had worked for 15 years.

"I've had people tell me I'll probably never work in that field again," he said. "I'm a little more optimistic."

Mr. Walsh lives in suburban Park Ridge in a $300,000 house. He and his wife, a personnel manager, have two children. He figures that he is far better off than some people who have lost their jobs, because "in my case it's not a case of how we're going to put groceries on the table."

Meanwhile, Mr. Walsh continues to hunt, as well as hope.

The good and bad news, said Durant Hunter, president of Whitehead Mann, a recruiter based in New York City, is that people over 50 are hired every day, though he said that was the exception rather than the rule.

"As an executive recruiter," Mr. Hunter said, "I have rarely had someone say, `Can you find me someone over 50 for this job?' It is almost always, `Find me someone 35 to 45.' "

Mr. Hunter added that most people did not have such notable success.

Mr. Linn, an accountant at an insurance company for 19 years, until 1999, has had two jobs since then, including the one at Aon. He said he had not given up hope. Dipping into savings "probably means I'll just have to work longer," Mr. Linn said.

He said he believed that "the economy is getting better," though he heard from a friend that an advertisement for a controller's position in a newspaper drew 800 responses.

He intends to keep looking, he said, figuring that someone somewhere is looking for "a participative and collaborative manager that gets things done and meets deadlines in a timely and accurate manner."

Try not to open too many programs while working on your computer. The more things that are open, the slower your system will run.