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Job Search for the Older Worker
By Michael Skinner
If you find yourself in a long unemployment line, staring at the back of the head of
the person in front of you and wondering how things have come to this pass. Take heart,
there is a job out there for you. Even in this economy.
The June of 2008 US News and World report listed the jobs that older Americans are most
likely to find available. I will use this article as a jumping off point in the search for
jobs for mature Americans. We will not visit all of the jobs and professions in the
article because in our current economic straits, some of the jobs would be untenable. For
instance, real estate broker does not seem like a particularly good job to have right now
even if it was available.
The jobs we will look at are:
1. Retail Sales/ Sales worker
2. Driver
3. Secretaries/Administrative assistant
4. Tax preparer
Let's make a few simplifying assumptions. First, let us stipulate that the elderly
worker is willing to move to get a new job and that he is willing to train for a new job
if necessary. These assumptions may not be as arbitrary as they seem. If you and a large
number of coworkers were laid off, it is less likely that the particular skill that you
have is not in demand in the place where you live. A willingness to retrain and a
willingness to move virtually doubles your chances of getting a new job.
Given that we are talking about an older worker, a long apprenticeship is out of
question. Jobs like engineer, doctor, lawyer, and machinist are out unless you already
possess those skills.
Of the four areas we have decided to look at let's see which one would be the most
fruitful. We are going to use one of the large popular job search sites to do our looking.
Namely Yahoo's hotjobs. We are going to simplify our search criteria to make it easier to
search and find the most jobs.
Let's search on the word "retail" by typing that word in the keyword box and clearing
out anything that might be in the City or Category boxes. Then push the search button. I
get the following:
1. Retail: 21,944 jobs
A very good supply. Let's try some similar search terms:
A. Sales: 36,938 jobs
B. Worker: 8,513 jobs
2. Driver: 15,167 jobs
A. Truck: 8,372 jobs
3. Admin 16,455 jobs
A. Administrative 16,455 jobs
B. Secretary 7,511 jobs
4. Tax 3,451 jobs
A. Tax Preparer 65 jobs
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