Wiser Worker Blog

Social Security insures families against the loss of income caused by retirement, disability, or death, with nearly universal coverage; Social Security insurance covers 94 percent of workers in paid employment and self-employment. The program has been a success; however, Social Security has a long-term solvency challenge.

Social Security insurance protects all age groups.

Social Security provides a retirement benefit that is guaranteed for life and is adjusted to keep pace with inflation.

Social Security benefits are adequately funded for another 32 years.

Social Security is the principal source of family income for nearly half of older Americans.

Social Security keeps older Americans out of poverty.

Social Security provides critical income support to minorities.

Social Security is crucial for women.

Social Security is the foundation of workers’ retirement security, but it was never intended to be the only source.

Source AARP.org

In case you missed it, AARP is rumored to be in support of the healthcare bill. It’s all no it’s the ONLY conversation on the social marketing sites and everyone no matter what your party affiliations seems to have an opinion. However I’m left with tonight this thought…

What does this all mean?

What happens if this bill gets passed?

What does it mean to someone that HAS private insurance?

What does it mean to someone who does NOT have insurance?

How many generations will be paying for this bill?

How quickly will this all take effect?

Well if you can answer these questions answers then you are steps ahead….if you can’t you have a lot of catching up to do! If you want to read through the entire bill here’s a copy of the expected bill for Health Care reform. (whole bill) However I did find Health Care Reform Bill - A Plain English Translation. Whichever way you want to go, make sure you find a position and be informed!

In case you missed it, AARP is rumored to be in support of the healthcare bill. It’s all no it’s the ONLY conversation on the social marketing sites and everyone no matter what your party affiliations seems to have an opinion. However I’m left with tonight this thought…

What does this all mean?

What happens if this bill gets passed?

What does it mean to someone that HAS private insurance?

What does it mean to someone who does NOT have insurance?

How many generations will be paying for this bill?

How quickly will this all take effect?

Well if you can answer these questions answers then you are steps ahead….if you can’t you have a lot of catching up to do!

If you want to read through the entire bill here’s a copy of the expected bill for Health Care reform. (whole bill) However I did find Health Care Reform Bill - A Plain English Translation.

Whichever way you want to go, make sure you find a position and be informed!

Keeping in the theme I kicked off week with I thought I would continue with tool to better your life….From our friends over at the AARP Foundation….a new program Real Relief.

With the cost of food and health care skyrocketing, families losing their homes, retirement accounts shrinking and millions of Americans without a job, AARP recently launched Real Relief, an online resource to help people weather these tough economic times.

Real Relief was created specifically to help individuals and families seeking assistance and guidance, this one-stop online portal offers programs and tools for those struggling to make ends meet, seeking employment or job training, worried about retirement, cutting back on expenses, or protecting investments.

If you are worried you might lose your job or your health care, maybe you are simply looking for new ways to help cover costs, or perhaps you are retired, looking for work. Real relief is the program that can help you connect your situations with real world immediate solutions.  Below are some of the tool you will find on when you visit real relief.

ü  Retiree information

ü  Programs to help make ends meet

ü  Job tips­

ü  Tips on protecting your money

ü  Financial calculators

ü  Money saving tips

ü  Economic news  

Don’t wait until it’s too late…..find real relief to your situation NOW……

The older job seeker has been on my mind more than usual over the last few weeks.  It’s nearly impossible to escape the media coverage on the bailout crisis the American economy; I find myself entranced by it for many reasons.  Most of all because it has a direct impact on the American job seeker and I think it has a more direct impact on the older job seeker. The older job seeker the one who have already worked HARD for the last 30 years and has been saving for the time when they could kick it into cruise control and enjoy their lives and what the next phase may bring. What happens to them?  That’s what’s been on my mind over the last few days and leaves me with the question:  “What’s next for the older worker?”   

The only conclusion I can come up with that makes any sense to me is this: Keep moving forward and stay positive - Keep your head to the grindstone.  Companies need to continue to hire qualified employees to keep their business moving forward. American’s need to continue to go to work and spend their paychecks and we will rebound.  Simply put if everyday every Americans move forward a little bit at a time we and our economy will recover.  In the meantime stay tuned to WiserWorker.com for useful hints and skills that will help you get a job. Check often for job opening in your area and we will still have job fairs in markets across the country.

Its business as usual at WiserWorker.com we’re moving forward!

Blog posted by Albert Hagen Las Vegas Advertising Consultant

There is a silver lining to otherwise drab and dreary economic news lately. Today, September 23^rd we held our Wiser Worker Job Fair at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. There was a line of job seekers over 200 strong when the doors opened. Throughout the course of the day we had approximately 1800 job seekers. We had 24 recruiting companies including AARP Foundation providing assistance to the Wiser Workers in attendance. Even the new team came out click here to view…

Job seekers of all ages were very appreciative of the variety of opportunities available and many thanked us for holding such a positive upbeat event with so much opportunity. Recruiters were delighted with the number, variety and quality of Job Seekers. I was hugged by three different clients and kissed on the cheek by one recruiter who had over 250 qualified applications including 10 qualified supervisor candidates. It is amazing to watch The Employment Guide Magic in Action: Quality companies offering people of all walks of life jobs that will improve their lives.

Today I had the opportunity to cover a booth while a recruiter took lunch and I met two people who made an impact on me. A jobseeker who is ex-Marine who wanted to see the country (he has seen the world) and loved the idea of living and working in a National Park as a cook or a waiter and a 60 Plus year old man from Vietnam who was so excited at the opportunity of working in Zion National Park he thanked me over and over, it would be his dream job for any of the positions available. The recruiter from Xanterra, David Johnson was pleased with the event and both of these applicants. He will probably offer them jobs this week.

This is what we do at The Employment Guide, We bring opportunity to the workers for free and deliver workers to quality companies so they can grow and offer more opportunities.

This is a great time to be a part of Employment Guide!

Do you pay too much for benefits? Do you need a way to save money every month on your fixed medical expenses?  We have joined forces with The AARP Foundation to offer our WiserWorker.com users a new tool: Benefits QuickLINK. We know that job-seekers #1 priority is how they will support their family while they are transitioning to a new job, while other job-seekers are just looking for a little extra support for themselves while they move to their next position.

 “We are thrilled to be working with the Employment Guide and Wiserworker.com to get the word out to job-seekers about our benefits program ”  Lori Strauss, National Coordinator AARP Foundation Benefits Outreach

The AARP Foundation’s Benefits QuickLINK website helps people find programs that support their families and their own health and financial security. Here’s how it works: A jobseeker goes to WiserWorker.com clicks AARP Foundation button, and then answers a short list of questions and presto the program presents them with the types of programs they may currently be connected with. It’s really that easy. 

Visit WiserWorker.com to see how you can save on your medical expenses.

Do you consider yourself an older worker?

You’re not alone if you do, if you fall into this category you are over the age of 65 and you’re the vast majority of the population. It also means that you are the most valuable and sought out jobseeker out there. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employment within the over 65 market rose by 101% and if that doesn’t catch your attention this will: people aged 16 to 64 only rose 59%. It doesn’t stop there, these numbers don’t include the Baby Boomer generation, the first baby boomer won’t turn 65 until 2011. Yes, you guessed it, the older worker demographic will increase dramatically in the years to come.

So what type of jobs are the typical “older worker” seeking?

You might be surprised that the field is wide open. The Employment Guide is an older worker friendly company we have a wide variety of employees who fall into this category. From sales managers to circulation drivers we employ a host of older workers. As a company we find that they add value to our product and our customers. A perfect job for someone who falls into this age category might be a job that compliments their skills and lifestyle. Maybe you are looking for a part-time job half the year in one part of the county and the other half across the county. Employers such as Home Depot like to work with older workers to accommodate their lifestyles and skill sets.

What does the future of the recruitment hold?

Well the “grey” wave as they are calling it is going to be hanging on BLS experts reports: “With the baby-boom generation about to start joining the ranks of those age 65 and over, the graying of the American workforce is only just beginning.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the share of the labor force aged 55 and older, currently at 17 percent, is rising rapidly and, by 2020, it is projected to be nearly 24 percent. The graying of the labor force can be attributed to many factors: longer life expectancy, significant increases in healthcare costs—and boredom.

Chuck Byes spent his entire career as president and owner of Carriers Traffic Service, Inc., a consultant to the motor common carrier industry assuring strict adherence to government regulations for its truck-line clients.  As deregulation increased, Byes’ client base dwindled, and he was forced to close the office and retire. Byes was only 59.

Finding himself with unexpected free time, Byes took to the road in his RV: “I visited every traceable relative, some more than once, enjoyed every national park, forest and monument, some more than once, and learned that travelling with your own kitchen, bath and sleeping accommodations doesn’t save you that much money in restaurant and motel expenses,” he mused. “Truth be told, I was bored.”

For several years Byes took on odd jobs in consulting and real estate, yet he says he was unfulfilled and, at his age, thought he had few prospects for finding a rewarding job: “I was 72 years old, reasonably healthy, reasonably alert, but with nothing useful to do. To my way of thinking at the time, I had little chance of finding anything beyond greeting customers at the local supermarket.”

Enter AARP Foundation and The Employment Guide. Thanks to the guidance of AARP Foundation representative Donna Martin at the Department of Economic Security office in Mesa, Arizona, Byes secured a job as circulation manager for The Employment Guide’s Phoenix office. 

“I’m useful here, I get to use my mind, and I get paid every two weeks!  Life is good!” he exclaims.

To help bring together more older workers with meaningful jobs, The Employment Guide (www.EmploymentGuide.com) and AARP Foundation (www.AARP.org/foundation), have partnered in the Employ the Older Workers Job Fair Series—a national effort, reaching more than 55 cities. From late August through October, thousands of job seekers age 40 and older will have the opportunity to meet and interview with employers for a wide variety of positions in industries such as hospitality, retail, government, transportation, telecommunications and customer service.

The job fair series is being held in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Employ Older Workers Week, Sept. 22-26, 2008.

To learn more about the graying of the American labor force and the Employ the Older Workers Job Fair Series, and for a complete listing of the job fairs, log on to http://wiserworker.com/job-fairs

Have you even been walking with a group of friends or family in a not-so-familiar town? At the end of the day when conclusions were drawn and adventures were recounted, were you amazed at what you missed?

One person noticed all of the bakeries, one noticed the kinds of flowers and trees that were in abundance, one the interesting antique fronts on several of the buildings, and you missed ALL of those things because you were only looking for one specific thing – and by golly that town didn’t have it! But look at what it did have and you missed it because you limited yourself to one thing, probably to only the stores that sold that one thing, and to the neighborhoods where you thought it should be sold.

We’ve all done that and regretted it in the end — that is, forfeited the good things because we limited ourselves, wore our very Sunday best blinders and then complained that there was nothing there for us.

Job search can be exactly like that original walk through town. For some, it is not familiar because you have never had to look for work – you’ve always had a job. For others it is seeking just one type of job and not seeing all of the other possibilities, or not willing to start part time or at a lower wage. When you end up at the end of your day, week, or month of job search, it can be disappointing when everyone else saw the bigger picture, noticed, explored, observed, and succeeded!

A couple of months ago there was a part time job with a mini-storage company. It was only 20 hours a week, $6.75 per hour, but it was in one of our smaller towns. We called several people, and no one wanted to take it – same pay, same hours as our program, so what was the advantage? Well, one person decided since he lived in the town, it would save him a lot of gas money (little did he know that two weeks later the gas price would zoom…). It would save him traveling time (even though he only traveled 12 minutes to work each day – which equals 120 minutes per week). That gave him two extra hours per week to plant his garden, and he hadn’t actually been offered any other job in spite of his persistence.

Without going on and on (and ON) about this success story, the person who owns the mini-storage has now bought another business and has offered our former client to work with them in this new business as well. More money, more hours, and all because he was willing to see the bigger picture. It may have been a fuzzy one at the beginning, but he believed us, believed in himself, took the chance, and WAH-LA!

Notice it all!

This guest post was written by Ginger Campbell. She has worked for the AARP Foundation for 32 years and was a Project Director for the Senior Employment program that helped over 5,500 mature job seekers in Humboldt and Sonoma Counties in. Northern CA. She is now the National Program Coordinator/WorkSearch SCSEP.

So how long have you had to wait to hear from various and sundry employers regarding jobs that you have applied for?  Two days?  Two weeks? Two months?!

You are not alone.

It definitely is a Hurry-Up-And-Wait game in the job search world.

What the game board looks like:

The employer advertises that there is a job opening in their business. You put your game piece into place and start your moves around the board.  You get the application, fill it in, write a cover letter, and take them back to the business or send them in, submit a resume if requested, contact your references to let them know they may be called by this employer….and wait.  And wait.  And WAIT!

By this time your game piece has already moved six or seven times on the board.  If you are a lucky player, you were able to jump two or three spaces ahead for various reasons.  You may have landed on the

“If you had a resume already prepared, move ahead three spaces.”

Or you may get to move ahead two places and jump five other applicants if

“You personally know the employer or one of your references knows the employer”.

Other extra moves may come if you land on the space that that says,

“Timing is everything. You turned in your application early so move ahead three spaces.”

Your goal is to get around the board as quickly as possible, and not have to go back any spaces because you forgot to sign the application, or you didn’t fill in every box on the application, you wore sweat pants and a T-shirt, or shorts and flip-flops when you took your application back.  There are so many things that one can do to have to move backwards on the Hurry Up and Wait game board.  But the clever, motivated and patient job search players have the advantage, they are always moving forward – not back.

Two moves that can help reduce the anxiety:

1. Ask the employer at the beginning of the process when they expect to make a decision of who gets interviewed
2. Call after a week if you have not heard anything and ask if there has been a decision made on when the employer will be interviewing applicants.

Of course the player/applicant would not ask if they specifically have been chosen to be interviewed - just when.

Patience is very important

Employers are very busy and things do come up that interfere with the interview process.  For every job that is advertised, unless it is a highly technical job, there are 30-60 applicants.  It takes time to review each application, to read each resume, to check references (some employers check references BEFORE they decide to interview which is why you never want to say “references upon request”), to find a time to interview 5-10 people and double check with their current employees to see if they want to move up or across and take the job.  Just remember that for the employer it is also a Hurry Up And Wait process. They are not being rude. It is not personal.  Just do your part and play your game well. Make the smart moves.  And then of course…wait.

This guest post was written by Ginger Campbell. She has worked for the AARP Foundation for 32 years and was a Project Director for the Senior Employment program that helped over 5,500 mature job seekers in Humboldt and Sonoma Counties in. Northern CA. She is now the National Program Coordinator/WorkSearch SCSEP.