Older Workers Fill Jobs in Place of Teens

I don't need the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to tell me that more older Americans are working right now than teenagers.

I can just go to Target.

One look at the red-shirted employees manning the checkout counters at my local store is all I need to see that the number of people over 65 currently employed has overtaken the number of workers 16 to 19.

In 2010, there are 1.13 U.S. workers over 65 for every teen, compared with .5 a decade ago, according to a recent Bloomberg story based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That means for every 100 teens ringing up your Target purchase, filling your McDonald's order or pulling your Starbucks caramel macchiato, there are 113 65-year-olds doing the same thing. Ten years ago, there would only have been 50 older workers.

Bloomberg notes that it's the first time since at least 1948 that 65-year-olds in the work force outnumber teens.

Some teens haven't been able to find employment in the current economy, but there are other factors at work, too. Some experts note that fewer young people are looking for jobs. More families are choosing to have their teens concentrate on summer school, extracurricular activities or community service work as a way to better their chances of getting into college, writes Chris Farrell in this BloombergBusinessweek article.

That's backed up by a May 2010 Labor Department report in which economist Teresa Morisi finds that teen summer employment has dropped steadily since 2000 as more attend summer school or take internships, but also because school years are longer and there are fewer federally funded jobs for teens.

At the same time, the economy is keeping people 65 and older in the work force longer. Many people who would have happily retired at 65 can't--some because the money they counted on pulling out of their homes isn't there anymore due to the continued decline of the housing market. Others haven't saved enough money or faced losses when their 401(k) savings took a hit in the recession.

But there's more to it than hard times. More people are making a conscious decision to delay full-time retirement because they want to keep working, whether in the jobs they've always had or bridge jobs they've taken as a first step toward retirement.

Service-industry jobs such as those Target cashier positions are well-suited to that type of bridge work. Many are relatively easy to learn, and the opportunities in retail and food service are out there, despite hiring freezes in other industries--one reason the country's overall unemployment rate has not dropped below 9.5 percent.

On a personal level, it makes me realize how fortunate my 17-year-old son was to find a job this summer as a part-time lifeguard at a city-managed swimming pool. Given that forecasters now fear hard times will stay with us a while longer before the economy starts looking up again, there's no doubt my son and his fellow teen lifeguards felt lucky to get the work.

Today, having a job--any job--feels good, no matter what your age.