Oct 14, 2008 5:21 pm US/Central
City Job Fair Draws Scores Of Hard-Luck Stories
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Lowell Kousins is 66 and looking to get back in the work force. His retirement nest egg has lost half a million dollars.
CBS
We keep hearing predictions that, sooner or later, economic struggles will cause aging workers to put off their retirement and stay at their jobs longer than they had planned. CBS 2's Mike Parker reports there are some who've already retired, but because of dwindling retirement funds, need to rejoin the workforce.
Scores of jobless Illinoisans lined up an hour early Monday at McCormick Place to seek work at the annual city career fair. There was plenty of encouragement from organizers.
Lowell Kousins thought his sales career ended two years ago when he retired. Now he's 66 and looking to get back in the work force. His retirement nest egg has lost half a million dollars.
"Now my 401k has gone to a 101k, so I'm over here today to see if I can do something else for 10 more years," Kousins said. "I need to work again, so I'm down here to keep working. I'm young, you know I feel young."
More than 30 government agencies, corporations and non-profit agencies were at the fair recruiting new employees. Aaron Schober, who lost his hospitality industry job two months ago, hopes he'll get lucky.
"My wife is working two jobs right now, my son's in day care," he said. "We're getting by. It's tough, though."
It's tough, too, for out-of-work administrator Gilbert Sandifer. This husband and father is not simply unemployed.
"I don't have any health insurance at all … and I have Type 2 diabetes," he said.
Many of the folks at the job fair are not just experienced workers. Unfortunately, they're also experienced job fair attendees. Some of them said this is their third or fourth event.
This suggests that as the jobless rolls grow longer, there are more and more qualified candidates for the jobs that are out there. The search for work will get longer and harder.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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