Boston ABLE finds jobs for 2,800 older workers

Aging, June-July, 1985

Economists estimated that in 1984 over 28,000 people 55 and older in Greater Boston wanted to work but couldn't find jobs. Many older workers have suffered as a result of rapid technological change, plant closings, company relocations and cutbacks. Age discrimination and lack of knowledge about how to look for a job both contribute to the problem of older worker unemployment.

Operation ABLE of Greater Boston is helping to solve this problem by creating and expanding employment opportunities for people 55 and over. ABLE (Ability Based on Experience) is the only Greater Boston organization solely committed to solving the unemployment problems of older workers. This innovative organization focuses its efforts in tree areas: support and training for a network of employment centers, advocacy and marketing through the media, and partnership activities with business.

Operation ABLE works through a network of 26 nonprofit organizations concerned with employment in the Boston area by helping them to strengthen their services for older job seekers. The organizations include such groups as Jewish Vocational Services, The Dislocated Workers Center, Project Hire and The Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts.

ABLE does not directly place people in jobs, but rather works with the network agencies to offer employers and job seekers a diversity of services. Last year, the ABLE Network placed 2,852 people 55 and older in jobs. Operation ABLE is modeled after its prototype agency, Chicago ABLE, which helps more than 5,000 workers to find employment each year.

ABLE's toll-fee Job Hotline (1-800-462-ABLE) is the heart of the organization, providing free services to both older job seekers and to employers who call in with job openings. The hotline staff receives calls from all kinds of older people looking for jobs, ranging from unemployed professionals to displaced homemakers. The hotline staff refers the job applicant to an appropriate agency with the ABLE Network.

The ABLE Network offers a variety of services to older people and employers. In addition to employment counseling, job development and direct placement, the Network agencies teach interviewing skills and resume writing, maintain job banks, and conduct support groups. There are executives clubs for older unemployed executives and Job Training Partnership Act programs for low-income job seekers. Resource libraries offer "how-to" tips on finding a job, and occupational training programs help prepare job seekers for the modern working world.

Placing a job listing with the ABLE Network saves the employer time and money. All job candidates are carefully screened before meeting with the employer for an interview, although the employer, of course, makes the ultimate hiring decision. The process takes approximately a week, and the service to the employer and the potential employee is offered free of charge.

ABLE recently developed a job placement model for economically disadvantaged older job seekers, a project that is called LEAD because it is based on a combination of local education, advocacy and development. Intensive "local education" and "advocacy" are conducted to inform low-income older people about Operation ABLE and when job seekers request help, the LEAD project offers them a full range of "job development" services--including direct job placement. The LEAD project is funded by an $81,000 grant authorized by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).

LEAD has been very successful in developing a new recruitment model to locate disadvantaged older people needing jobs, who are defined by JTPA as those with incomes of $5,500 or below, excluding Social Security. According to LEAD staff, the project found that this particular group of the unemployed are not people who frequent senior centers, nor are they always people who have had poverty-level incomes all their lives. A significant number are professionals who have lost jobs because of company closings or staff reductions and have been out of work for a long time.

To reach this group as well as older people who previously held extremely low-paying jobs, LEAD did a "blitz" mailing to persons 55 and over in 33 communities to invite them to a local meeting to learn about job placement services. These meetings are held in central locations in the community and are often attended by mayors or other local officials who strongly endorse the LEAD program. Staff members say the meetings have been very successful and have typically drawn about 30 people. LEAD also publicizes its services by working closely with the media in presenting success stories of low-income older people who have found jobs.

While Operations ABLE is working to solve the current older worker unemployment problem, ABLE is also planning ahead. ABLE's Business partnership project is working with business both to explore areas in which older workers might make a valuable contribution and to identify innovative and profitable ways of employing them. The Business Partnership project, which is funded by a grant from the Administration on Aging, is currently gathering information on successful programs for employing older workers. Examples include major insurance companies and banks forming retiree pools to fill temporary needs; retail business instituting part-time work for peak periods; and hi-tech companies offering mature workers training opportunities to update skills, keep up with technological change, or adapt to new positions.