Baby-Boomers: America's New Unemployable

This is a recap many of you should check out regarding CBS Sunday Morning report on the jobless, in particular, how the Baby-boomers have been affected. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/03/sunday/main20050117.shtml?tag=strip

My letter to CBS Sunday Morning-

Charles,

Thank you. There was no doubt discrimination was playing a very large role in this shameful economic situation. Finally, Sunday Morning's all too brief vignette of the jobless tragedy occurring within my generation of Baby-boomers was long overdue. I too was in the category of the unemployed but was lucky enough that a previous customer ended up hiring me at entry level salary, grateful for the opportunity to work again after being unemployed for almost 12 months having held a position at a medium size company for 36 years before being laid-off.

It was scary. I had submitted over 481 resumes to open positions, with only 3 interviews before I was blessed with my current opportunity. My wife and I knew the dates used within my resumes were the cause and effect of any consideration. Unfortunately, recruiters and HR personnel seem to be the ones contributing to the discrimination. There was a moment during the job search process that my wife and I wanted to get a lawyer for a class action suit of age-discrimination but knew it was fruitless.

I do understand that "value-add" is the bottom line consideration for any hiring organization but, also understand that many of the unemployed Baby-boomers can walk in the door of most companies and provide this kind of contribution immediately, where many college graduates (little or no previous working history) would stumble for longer periods before any recognized value.

Thank you for opening the eyes of many to this horrific hiring practice on the part of many companies and hiring firms.

You (CBS) need to re-run this Sunday Morning piece again very soon.