The problem isn't age: work and older Americans. - book reviews

AFL-CIO American Federationist, The, March 19, 1988 by Gene Zack

The Problem Isn't Age: Work and Older Americans

The labor market problems of older workers are powered less by age discrimination these days than by other factors-the displacement of workers due to a faltering economy that results in lengthy spells of joblessness often extending into involuntary early retirement; poor health and disabilities that drive them from the workforce prematurely, and the difference encountered by women, minority group members and those whose low levels of education left them vulnerable to present or past discrimination.

That conclusion emerges from this study that examines the aging of the workforce and the population, the restructuring of the nation's industrial complex in the face of rising foreign competition as well as changing times and changing technologies, and the actions taken by a bipartisan national commission in concert with Congress to reinforce the financial integrity of the social security system.

Although the percentage of older persons in the labor force isn't expected to increase dramatically in the near future, the number of older Americans who want to continue working is on the increase, emphasizes Sandell, an economist at the National Commission for Employment Policy and currently director of its project on national employment policy and older Americans. He was formerly an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University and a one-time Brookings Institute fellow at the Dept. of Health & Human Services.

Sandell draws on the expertise of a wide range of labor economists, gerontologists and public policy analysts associated with major universities and research institutions to examine such issues as the reduced pay of older job losers, aging and relative earnings, part-time employment of older workers, job displacement and how the federal-state Employment Service treats this problem, government employment and training programs, work alternatives for the elderly, changes in social security, and the health plan and social security costs of employing mature workers.

The ultimate solution to the employment difficulties facing the elderly, Sandell concludes, consists of improved economic conditions, better training and retraining programs and a greatly enhanced system of job-search assistance. He emphasizes that if the nation hopes to make effective use of older workers' skills and experience in the next century, the time to begin developing new retirement and employment problems is now.

Contributors to this exhaustive treatment of the job problems of older Americans include economist Joseph M. Anderson, David L. Kennell and John F. Sheils, all of ICF Inc.; economist Kalman Rupp, Edward Bryant and Michael Rhoads, WESTAT Inc.; economist Katherine P. Dickinson, James O. Gollub and Richard W. West, SRI International; Paul Andrisani, professor of industrial relations and Thomas Daymont, assistant professor of industrial relations, Temple University; Frank Brechling, professor of economics, University of Maryland; Robert L. Clark, professor of economics and business, North Carolina State University; Gary S. Fields, professor of labor economics and Olivia S. Mitchell, associate professor of labor economics, Cornell University; economist Terry R. Johnson, Battelle Memorial Institute; economists Jim Jondrow and Alan Marcus, Center for Naval Analyses; Richard Mantovani, systems management consultant, Bethesda, Md.; Carolyn Paul, Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California; economist Carol Jusenius Romero, National Commission for Employment Policy; Lawrence S. Root, associate professor of social work and Laura H. Zarruch, former research associate at the Gerontology Center, University of Michigan, and David Shapiro, associate professor of economics, Pennsylvania State University.