For Immediate Release:
September 20, 2006
Contact:
Nanci Gonder, Office of Public Information
573-751-6062
“Old-Fashioned” Retirement Fades Away As More Seniors Join Workforce
‘National Employ Older Workers Week’ begins Sunday, and it finds more seniors in the workforce. These seniors may help the nation address the challenge posed by potential worker shortages in health care and other industries. In fact, the number of employed Americans aged 65 to 74 will increase by 48 percent between 2002 and 2012, according to AARP and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Seniors join the workforce and delay retirement for various reasons. Some want to help improve the quality of life in their communities, while the motivation for others is financial necessity.
National Employ Older Workers Week 2006, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), runs September 24 through 30.
The annual event showcases 41 years of the SCSEP providing on-the-job experience and training to low-income people who are 55 or older. It encourages employers to draw upon the underutilized pool of experienced and committed older American workers. Since its inception, the program has helped over one million people enter the job market each year.
In Missouri, the program is administered through a $2.1 million-plus grant agreement with the Department of Health and Senior Services and four of its contracting agencies: Cardinal Ritter Senior Services, Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Inc., MERS/Missouri Goodwill Industries, and Experience Works, Inc. The funding will be used primarily for wages to train up to 299 older workers this year.
Gini Heckman, 63, a part-time office assistant at Jefferson City’s Independent Living Resource Center, is one of the program’s success stories. “My husband passed away suddenly in 2000,” she said. “I was a stay-at-home mom, not confident about getting a job. I wanted something clerical that would help people, but I hadn’t used office skills in years and years.”
Heckman received the training she needed to sharpen her clerical skills and learn new ones through Experience Works. The agency contracts with nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies to place Heckman and other program participants in paid training assignments, which may last up to five years. The participants work around 20 hours a week during their training and receive minimum wage, which currently is $5.15 an hour.
The goal for all SCSEP participants is to move out of training and into an unsubsidized, private-sector job, thereby increasing their earnings. Heckman accomplished the goal and moved into her current $10-an-hour position in 2005.
For now, Heckman has no thoughts of retiring. “With health insurance and gas prices, I have to work,” she said. “Besides, I need to be among people, at least part of the day. I went through the stage of movies and lunches after my husband died and I knew I wasn’t accomplishing anything. It wasn’t enough.”
Low-income seniors interested in obtaining a paid job-training assignment and 501(c)(3) organizations interested in serving as a host agency for a senior’s training may call the Department at 573-526-8534.