Down, Not Out: Surreal Unemployment At 55

For Steve Dittmann, 55, unemployment has been surreal:

"It's like there's two worlds out there: People who are still working, who are still living the same lives they always had, and I feel like I'm on the other side of a Plexiglass wall looking in," said Dittmann, who lives in Kansas. "I know I'm not unique. It's like you can't get back into that world. It's very strange."

Dittmann wrote the Huffington Post to say he'd lost his job when the business he and his wife owned, which sold "high-end plantation shutters," shut down last fall. For 30 years, Dittmann said, he'd lived an upper middle class lifestyle. He worked in advertising before buying the business in 2007, right before "the economy went to Hell" and the business "dropped off the face of the earth."

Now, Dittmann said, he and his wife, Stephanie, are coasting on dwindling savings and Stephanie's earnings from a part-time accounting job. They said they hadn't made a mortgage payment since February. If they lose the house to foreclosure, they might move in with Stephanie's parents, who they said have offered to take them in.

It's been impossible to land a job. "I probably responded to 200 or 300 ads and I've had one call back."

Then Dittmann said something that the HuffPost has heard from a lot of people:

"I think part of it is my age," he said. "I can't prove that but I think that's probably true. I was a business owner before. If you can hire someone in their 40s versus someone in their 50s, the person in their 40s is going to stay with you longer, and the person in their 50s is going to be more expensive because of health insurance. Everybody I've talked to that's in their 50s, looking for a job, they're getting nowhere."

It's true: Workers 45 and older comprise a disproportionate share of the long-term unemployed. But Dittmann is not feeling sorry for himself.

"In the past few months I've learned to appreciate how lucky I've been up to this point in my life, having lived an upper middle class professional lifestyle for the past 30 years," he wrote in an email. "I'm sorry to say I took it all for granted. I didn't over-extend myself, no mini-mansions, no expensive vacations, none of that... but we've always lived comfortably, without financial concerns. And even today, I'm still better off than probably 85 percent of the people on this planet, so everything is truly relative.

"Still, I can't believe I'm where I'm at today... I'm truly numb. I'm not even mad about my situation, because I'm not sure who or what to be mad at. Keeping my sanity is a priority, and I'm just thankful that we have no children to worry about."

HuffPost readers: Are you doubling up with friends or family to save money? Tell us about it -- email [e-mail].

Comments

[biwee]

Step back, and look at what the federal government does.
Here are a few examples:
Bush started an unnecessary war of choice for Israel. That war in Iraq will cost about $2 trillion whne the final bills are paid.
The US Congress wastes hundreds of billions on pork and "earmarks".
The US gives money to countries run by criminals.
YOU vote to keep this kind of government in power. YOU believe all the government LIES.
YOU support the immoral and criminal military industrial complex. Want change???? Want the USA to help its OWN citizens who are unemployed??
VOTE against incumbents.

[Artemis34]

Until we have campaign finance reform, they'll still be beholding to corporations and their lobbies.

Check out:

http://change-congress.org/

[atexasdem]

Okay, your right. things are messed up. So we can either cry or we can go on, struggle and work to overcome it personaly. I can't fix Washington. I can send a few dollars to a candidate I like, I can educate myself on issues and politicians but I know they won't save me. Washington won't save me and they won't pay my bills. It's always been messed up. LBJ sent me to a war that really messed me and the whole country up. G.W. did the same thing to my grand kids generation. Politicians sell their souls for the almighty campaign contributions. I can't fix that. So what to do? I can either cry and blame others for it or I can save myself. I CAN fix that.I CAN fix myself.
Washington (and Texas) politicians are corrupt. It's just a fact. Always have been , always will be. They will always sell out for the big campaign contributors. I can't fix that. But I've got two good hands and a brain. Their not going to save me. I guess I'll just have to save myself.

[John Horner]

Throwing out incumbents doesn't fix the problems. Here in California we have had strict term limits for all offices for quite some time now, and our legislature is even more messed up than it was before.

[mamacat]

I have seen older people succeed in getting hired who had skills that were hard to come by. For jobs that do not require specialised skills, the competition from younger people can be tough.

I too was forced out of a job in my 50s. Fortuneately, I had planned for my future, lived within my means, and with a little bit of luck, have done fine since then.

Doing well in old age requires not only luck, but foresight. I know a few friends and relations who refused to take precautions for their old age, scoffing at suggestions to make plans, and now they are in very, very bad shape. These same people seem to be constantly looking for someone else to blame for their troubles, such as illegal immigrants, foreigners, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama, instead of looking at their own lack of common sense.

[Artemis34]

Yes, a lot of ugly scapegoating going on out there.

Thanks for the emphasis on positive and proactive planning.

[Artemis34]

Many have said here "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

There is so much great talent that goes unused, and is certainly not fully leveraged.

We need something like the PEACE CORPS for mature workers. A paid service organization that could give people a way to contribute AND earn a living, however modest.

Should be part of the new New Deal we need.

[mamacat]

I went to the local High School to volunteer as an unpaid tutor. I have a lot of experience, am college educated, am a vet, and no criminal record. They weren't interested, even though the school children are almost all minorities and from low income families. To me that didn't make sense.

[KillTheMessenger]

You may have noticed that high schools are not particularly interested in educating students these days. They are merely interested in passing "the test".

[atexasdem]

You are absolutely correct. It seems that if you don't fit into a carefully prescribed "box" they can't use you. I plan to "part time" retire soon. Maybe combine my vocation with some traveling even international. Teaching is another possibility. A thirty year experianced master electrician certified in the design and installation of solar electrical systems should have value as a volunteer. Should be able to "give back" and make a differance which I'd like to do. Maybe even in a developing country.
I'm doing very well here in Texas with the developing renewable energy market. My new career is doing great, but it seems that volunteers just aren't in demand.

[robinhood1]

In our Alice and Wonderland economy, not everyone is hurting. The car cleaners (janitors) on the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System earn between $50,000 and $69,000 annually based on the most recently available data, including some overtime. Read about it here: http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12682351?source=most_viewed&appSession=588177558994340
Are you sure you want to spend $200,000 for four years at an artsie fartsie liberal arts college? You might be considered overqualified if you apply for a janitor's job.

[Garioch]

Oh the horror of it! Working people doing a tough, dirty, essential job being paid a living wage, where will this madness end, soon there will be nobody for the middle class to look down on from their white collar occupations.

[mamacat]

So, green industries, such as light-rail rapid transit systems, create good paying jobs. And this is bad how?

When I was still working, I knew plenty of college educated people who took jobs in the trades because they got paid more that way. It is just a fact of life. Still, a college education is a reward in its own right, and, as that famous Republican strategist Karl Rove said, (paraphrasing), the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to vote Democratic.

[atexasdem]

Sorry guy but the high school guidance counselor lied to you. The ultimate measure of success isn't a collage degree.
I got mad because it seemed my grand sons "counselor" tried to convince him it was either collage or burger flipping. The "counselor" was actually offended because after all he was a "success" because he had a collage degree.That seems to be the prevailing attitude. Nothing personal but my grand son isn't a rocket scientist. Good kid, very hard working kid but he's no Einstein.
After high school he went to work for a dog groomer. He loved it. He loves animals and he's good at it. Pretty soon customers were asking for him. After one year he opened his own dog grooming business out of his house. People flocked to him. I encouraged him to take some business classes at the community collage which he did. Now he has two dog grooming shops and hopes to open an upscale "botique" animal daycare and grooming business. I think he'll do great.
Except for two business and accounting classes at the community collage (he got a C) I suppose that counselor would consider him a "failure". But the boys doing great. He loves his work. His customers love him and the sky is the limit.
Collage is great, but the world needs more plumbers, electricians and dog groomers a lot more than it needs French art history PHD. collage graduates.

[KillTheMessenger]

The counselor didn't lie. A college degree may not be the source of all success but for most people who go there it is the source of financial stability.

One does not have to be either an Einstein or a rocket scientist to go to college. An average amount of intelligence will do. What is does take, though, is the willingness to use it. You can work eight hours at a cash register or you can stare for eight hours into books. It's roughly the same amount of work except that in one case your feet will hurt and in the other it will be your head. There is nothing more to it.

As for your grand son's success, that's great. From all I can tell he would have been able to get through college with his work attitude in a breeze. Who knows what he could have achieved in life if he had taken the chance? This way all he has is a chain of dog grooming stores.

:-)

[John Horner]

Amen atexasdem! The school-industrial-complex has been preaching this self-serving, narrow-minded and factually incorrect line of nonsense for too long. College is a great path for many, but not the only path to living a successful life. Bill Gates and Michael Dell both dropped out of college because they had more important things to do. They are extreme examples, but the point is that college isn't the universal answer school counselors and large company bureaucrats think it is.

[Dayahka]

Millions of people are probably facing the situation described in the article, and millions more will be facing similar situations in the future. Sorry, but life is change.

Looking back on my long life with several successful careers, and also with several periods similar to the one we're in now, there are two simple rules that got me through: Live within your current income, and be willing to do anything for work.

Live within your current income means just that: if you were living high once but now have unemployment income or maybe just savings, then live within that income. If you have a huge house or large apartment, then get rid of them and get something you can afford. The second rule is very important: Be willing to do anything. By this I don't mean anything illegal, I just mean if you were once a banker, don't scorn and look down on flipping burgers if that's what's available. If you think that just because you have experience and are older and once had "good" pay that you're going to just walk into a similar situation, you're dreaming and not facing reality.

[SonofLiberty1]

And you are ether still working or are happily retired...

Please do us all a favor and be very quiet!

[KillTheMessenger]

Why should the truth shut up? So you won't feel so bad about yourself?

[Artemis34]

And that includes moving.

[MissingAmerica]

When my positions in computers were outsourced and manned by Visa workers, I turned 55. The local employment office informed me that they could retrain me to do what I was already doing. Biggest difference? I had been making anywhere from $2,500 to $4,000 per month programming computers and could not find work. By retraining, they could have gotten me a job at minimum wage which would probably include stacking boxes, something I could hardly do considering scoliosis and arthritis in the legs and back. Nope, we need our jobs back.

Everytime I hear the Wal-Mart ad where they are said to make sure we get the lowest prices because they care, I am reminded that they are one of the biggest culprits in this selling of America. We need to find a way to bring ourselves back.

As for Steve Dittman and others in his position, stay strong and God bless.

[mamacat]

The situation that enables Wal-Mart to succeed so well is destroying the livelihoods of American workers. That is why we need to push through the bill that the Dems are working on to ensure the right of working people to organise. Up until now, every time an individual Wal-Mart has voted to unionise, the family that owns the chain closed down that store. This new bill, if signed into law, will force Wal-Mart to honor the rights of workers to unionise, and will make it easier for hundreds of thousands of workers to earn a living wage, with vacations and retirements.

[KillTheMessenger]

What is a position "in computers"? You said you were programming? What language and which system? Did you keep your skills up to date or did you go out with the last Cobol mainframe in the building?

An H-1B will typically be paid much more than $2500-4000 a month, so it's likely that they hired them because they had skills that you lack.

[Dialogue]

Job Search Tips: A number of companies (?) run employment ads in search of help, and the perspective applicants who respond are informed during the interview process that the position is
un-funded, because the job is being offered as a 1099 classification, anotherwords, self-employment. Unfortunately, the ad that's taken to the interview, says absolutely nothing about a self-employment scheme. Why would a company offer a 1099 classification to someone who is not applying for a sales job? What's next, classifying RN's, school bus drivers and short order cooks as 1099 contractors? It is getting out of hand. Something needs to be done on that front. Regarding headline unemployment numbers, they must not reflect those who were self-employed, or working as 1099 contractors, who are now unemployed. These people need to be under the unemployment protection umbrella.

[Artemis34]

They want you at a 1099 contractor so they can have two tiered employment, those with benefits and those without.

[Artemis34]

On FREE TRADE, check out the current account balance

United States -7,335.869 bn

We give more money to other countries than any other country in the world.

That is why the entire world was going nutz when Pres. Obama was talking about "buy American" in the ARRA. Because we're supporting the entire world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cumulative_Current_Account_Balance.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_account

I've traveled around the world and there is no country on earth that has more foreign goods and services than the US.

I think Dr. Ravi Batra http://www.ravibatra.com/ and some other economist have some ideas on fixing this.

[csmcmillion]

I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and 15 year's experience. I've been able to find work for 7 months in the last 5 1/2 YEARS.

F you Bill Gates and your H1B1 VISA program!!!

[hey0there]

have you read this? prepare to punch your monitor. American grads are "unemployable".

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/22/0019233

[Uosdwis]

It appears the system isn't broken enough yet to where we reverse trends. My thought is "if we are competing with workers who make, conservatively, only a tenth of what we make, when is an apartment going to cost a tenth of what it does now?" THEN we can start competing, because we can afford to live on a salary a tenth of what it is now. Except, Chinese or Vietnamese or Indian workers probably live on even LESS than a tenth of our wages.

[SonofLiberty1]

I think it's time for a revolution in thought..let's find these folks that tell us we are unemployable...and ...

THROW THEM UNDER THE BUS!!!!

[Artemis34]

Here is a more positive, forward looking take on international competition:

Did you know?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8&feature=fvst

What does it all mean?

Shift happens!

[KillTheMessenger]

From that I conclude that you are a lousy engineer who can't even make it past the most desperate hiring manager.

Not that I haven't seen many of that type...

OK. How do I put it? I have been in the US for ten years now and I have been unemployed for less than four weeks...

I must be doing something right and you must be doing something wrong.

:-)

[John Horner]

No, you just aren't old enough to have been tossed on the scrap pile yet.

[Lorianne]

In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. ___ Eric Hoffer

[SiriusGD]

Karma will pay the Merchants of Chaos back. Now that I am going to reinvent myself, I'm going to maintain expensive vehicles. I'll do lower costs for the needy and higher costs for the rich, greedy of this system.

[Artemis34]

Health care figures two ways here:

1) The cost of private health care is used to exclude mature workers

and

2) The cost of private health care is onerous for those who have to buy it without employer help

Private health care is also a drag on business and US competitiveness.

If you would like to stand up for Public Option health care, stand with Dr. Dean

http://standwithdrdean.com/

Call and write your Representative and Senators.

Get active. Volunteer to change the country for the better.

Good luck everyone.

[POLINUT]

I hope those in the 40 and under age groups read this and take from it these simple truths:

1. There will be no social safety net in 20 years. Accept and prepare for this fact NOW.
2. If you are an employee today, you will likely be working for the rest of your life if you remain in America. Planning now to retire in your later years to a more financially friendly country is not a bad idea.
3. Love and support your kids, and prepare them to have to do the same for you later. The era of teaching American children to leave the nest and not worry about supporting the parents is over (or should be).

[Artemis34]

2) It is a good idea to secure a legal right to live in another country.

If not, you will really not have a "Plan B."

[instagladiator]

Well said. In 2001, we sold our home at a good profit, packed up and "got the H out of Dodge!" and haven't looked back. Moved all of our savings, 401K's, etc. into "sheltered" off-shore accounts where Uncle Sam cannot snoop. By the way, we get a much better investment return than ever was offered in the US.
There's really not much future in the US that I can foresee. None of our off-spring live there, each of them have good employment, benefits and are able to live a good lifestyle.
Still, I can't help but sympathize with folks like mentioned in the above article - "If only they would have.... etc."

[SoClearToMe]

I feel for all the good people who are trying to find jobs.

They say small businesses are the biggest drivers for employment. I realize that the man featured in this article was an entrepreneur and lost his company, but in general for those who are having a hard time landing a job, try thinking of how to start your own business.

When you are over 50, this may be the way to go for a lot of people. I realize it is hard to get a loan, period, especially without a job, but it's a thought for a difficult situation.

[goldcoastsailor]

Hey, I'm still designing and framing houses at 61, been self employed 35 years. I dropped out of the corporate world in '73 with an MBA. If you want job security, work for yourself early on. California's been good to me and still is.

[MyrtleJune]

Making that transition is tough but I'm certainly working in that direction..... no mba though ;-)

[POLINUT]

Co-signed.

I saw/see/listened to what is happening to your generation and am doing exactly that. I left a very promising corporate career to work for myself 10-11 years ago. It was scary as hell the first 2 years, but also the best move I ever made. I have since lived very comfortably and remain credit/debt-free.

Listen up folks!

[John Horner]

Yep, working for Da Man is a sure fire ticket to oblivion for most people. You were wise to set out on your own.