Tuesday, April 15, 1997

More older people working, companies slowly accepting them

By MAGGIE JACKSON AP Business Writer

Ina Sandles, 66, looked for work for two years after losing her job in a downsizing. But she found rejection after rejection from employers she sensed were turned off by her age.

Until the Gap. The company whose jeans and shirts shout youth culture gave Sandles a part-time job at a New York City store after recruiting her at an expo for over-50s.

Welcome to the graying of work force America.

More and more healthy older people like Sandles are re-entering working life after an early or forced retirement, or are postponing retirement altogether.

Yet the going is not easy. While some companies like Gap Inc. are waking up to the value and necessity of hiring the over-50 crowd, many employers shun them. And even when they do find a job, often it is one with less pay or fewer benefits.

In her sales associate position at Baby Gap, Sandles receives no benefits and her hours swing from six to more than 40 hours a week. Yet remembering her two years of unemployment and considering her lack of prior experience in retail sales, she feels lucky.

"As soon as companies saw my resume and looked at my years, I was discredited," recalls Sandles, who was let go after 10 years at Xerox Corp. "I knew darn well what was going on."

In contrast, "the Gap was welcoming, responsive. They appreciate the older workers' expertise, our ability to converse with people, our professionalism."

The Gap also appreciates the demographics of America, where people over age 65 will represent 20 percent of the population in 2050, up from 14.6 percent today.

"It represents an opportunity for us," says Debbie Gardner, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based retailer, which started recruiting older workers in 1994. "Our customers are going to be better served if the work force is representative of the community."

A tight labor market and a shrinking pool of young people inspires other companies to act.

When the Days Inn chain couldn't fill jobs at its 24-hour telephone reservation center in Knoxville, Tenn., it began to recruit older people. Now 12 percent of its staff of 600 at the center are older than 50, says spokeswoman Donna Dozier Gordon.

Buoyed by longer, healthier lives and the need or wish for money during a longer old age, today's older people are showing an increasing interest in working after age 65.

"People ask us where they can get guidance and where there are jobs," says Julie Frank, founder of Fifty Plus Expo, the fair where Sandles was recruited last year. The fifth annual two-day expo opened Sunday in New York and will travel to Chicago in November.

Although the fair offers everything from exercise tips to sex advice, jobs are the No. 1 concern of the 10,000-plus annual attendees, says Frank.

That was true for Beth Borek, a silver-haired New Yorker winding her way through the crowded expo Sunday looking for job tips.

Borek took early retirement from boat maker Brunswick Corp., but had trouble finding a new job when she wanted to work again. Prospective employers "don't say you're older, they say you're overqualified," she said.

She ultimately accepted work as an optometrist's assistant, but now would like to find a "faster-paced" job.

Her experience isn't unusual. A study by the American Association of Retired Persons found that over-55s looking for work were unemployed an average of 27 weeks, compared with an average 17 weeks for workers under 55.

Many workers would prefer part-time hours, and must change jobs to find such work - a switch that typically results in a pay cut of up to 50 percent, says Michael Hurd, co-leader of a landmark University of Michigan study on elder health and retirement.

Still, their ranks are growing. The number of workers age 65 and older jumped 31 percent to 3.8 million between 1985 and 1995, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many bridge the gap between jobs with temp work, according to the National Association of Temporary and Staffings Services. Half of temps are aged 35 to 64, up from 40 percent in 1989, says the association.

Others - like 66-year-old Ann Wilder - start their own businesses.

Burned out by teaching, Wilder began selling her spice mixes to stores in her Towson, Md. neighborhood in 1982.

Now she commands a staff of up to 20 employees - including her "retired" husband - and sells her spices nationwide.

And being an older businesswoman has its advantages, she says with a laugh.

"As a grandmotherly figure, people trust me."