Recession Driving Older Workers To Social Security

The current recession, which is still going regardless of what any of the so-called pundits might say, has been devastating for many working and middle class Americans. Over 12 million people lost their jobs and only a very tiny fraction of those jobs have been replaced by new job creations.

But the recession has been especially hard on older Americans. The closer one gets to retirement age (now at 66 years old), the harder it is to find a new job when a job is lost. Most employers prefer to hire a younger worker -- someone who has never worked for a lot of money and may stay on the job for many years -- especially on low-paying jobs (which is about all there is now). Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed people over 55 years old has increased by 115% (and over 53% have been out of work for over 6 months or more).

This has had the effect of driving many older Americans to social security a few years earlier than they wanted, and caused them to have to accept a significant cut in their benefits for the remainder of their lives. But when a person has bills and must have an income (and there are no available jobs), a cut in social security income is better than no income at all.

These numbers from the Social Security Administration show the explosive growth in the number of early retirees due to the recession (percentage shown is early retirees):

1970...............47%

1980...............57%

2007...............74%

2008...............74%

2009...............72%

This story has a personal meaning for me. I am one of the 72% who took an early social security retirement in 2009 and lost about 25% of my retirement benefit. I did not want to do that and had planned on working for a few more years, but the Bush recession didn't give me much choice. Fortunately, I also had a state annuity to make up the difference (but even that would have been larger if I could have continued working a few more years).

I'm just thankful I was old enough to get my retirement benefits. If I'd been a few years younger, I would be one of those haunting the unemployment office looking for jobs that don't exist and becoming angry at Republicans who think those out of work are just lazy and don't deserve unemployment benefits.

Through de-regulation and trickle-down economics, the Republicans have seriously hurt millions of people in this country. I hope they still remember this when they go to the polls in November. I know I will.