4 Tips For Older Workers During the Pandemic

4 Tips For Older Workers During the Pandemic

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate jumped from 3.3% to 13.6% in April for people age 55 and older. Susan Weinstock, the Vice President of Financial Resilience at AARP, thinks that older individuals who unexpectedly found themselves out of work during the pandemic may be facing a daunting job market.

AARP sites research by the Urban Institute which shows that half of full-time workers from the age of 50-54 will lose their jobs involuntarily. Furthermore, it can take them twice as long to find a new job than their younger counterparts, and even then the older employees tend to be paid less.

As dreary as some of those figures sound, here are four tips for older workers and the semi-retired alike:

1. Susan Weinstock says that if you are 50 or older and find yourself out of work, this is a great time to “upscale or re-scale.”
2. An example she provides is to “upscale” your resume and take an online course or training to show that you are a lifelong learner.
3. If you are working from home, Weinstock suggests putting the money that would otherwise be spent on commuting and such expenses in your retirement account.
4. A way to “rescale” would be to reassess your assets to see if there are any adjustments that should be made to insurance coverages. Over the years your insurable interest may have changed and now you may not need as much coverage, for example. Many older Americans, in and out of the workforce, are finding significant value tapping the market value of the life insurance policy with a life settlement. A life settlement allows a life insurance policy holder to sell their policy for more than the cash value but less than the death benefit of the policy, to a third party. In exchange they receive a cash lump sum payment and the buyer pays all policy premiums moving forward.