A growing number of Americans, who have traditionally been pushed to the margins of the economy, are successfully finding work. But for one group of workers, those over 55, the employment surge was less dramatic. Fortunately, Congress has a mechanism to address this contradiction, and all that is needed is funding.
The employment rate for “prime-age” Americans (25-54) has returned to pre-pandemic levels, even though it has exceeded that level for women. is still lagging behind. At the same time, the number of job openings in the U.S. economy still exceeds the number of people actively looking for work. Vacancies are particularly high in certain fields, such as health care, social services, child care, and long-term care facilities.
Thankfully, Congress already has ways to help connect older workers on the sidelines of the labor market to available opportunities. The Senior Community Services Employment Program (SCSEP) is the only federal employment and training program specifically targeted to people age 55 and older who want to work but face barriers to securing employment. Inexplicably, House Republicans are proposing to end the program at the worst possible time, when older workers and the economy as a whole need it most.
Over the next decade, individuals age 55 and older are projected to drive 42% of the growth in the U.S. workforce, with women leading the way. In other words, future economic growth depends on older people’s labor force participation. The number of older workers has been increasing for decades, but many need a boost to find good jobs. Even people with a stable work history may need to upgrade their skills later in their career to take advantage of new and developing job opportunities. Those with gaps in their work history may need additional support.
Data shows that when older workers are laid off from a long-term job, they are significantly less likely to find a new job than those under 55 and are at greater risk of leaving the labor market altogether. Shown. Similarly, people who take time away from work to attend to their own health needs or care for a loved one often don’t find it easy to return to work. Caregiving can be particularly burdensome for older women, in fact they are five times more likely to have an impact on their employment compared to men of the same age.
This is where SCSEP comes into play. This program serves people over the age of 55 who face specific barriers to employment. Targets unemployed people with incomes below 125% of the poverty line and provides on-the-job training and placement into jobs in community service settings. Community service providers can also benefit from this program because it subsidizes the wages paid to program participants. Subsidized employment in SCSEP is designed as a temporary stepping stone to help those facing the most severe employment barriers transition from unemployment to full-time employment and enjoy the economic security that comes with it.
For many years, annual funding for SCSEP was available to only a small fraction of those eligible, less than 1%. Sadly, funding has not kept up with rising wages and a growing elderly population. Enrollment for the 2023 program year is estimated at 42,281. Priority will be given to veterans, people with disabilities, people age 65 and older, people living in rural areas, people with limited English proficiency or low literacy skills, and people with other barriers to employment. Approximately two-thirds of all participants were women, a similar proportion were from racial or ethnic minorities, and one in four had at least one disability. Recent research has found that the program promotes not only employment-related benefits, but also participants’ financial, physical, mental, and social well-being.
Communities across the country will benefit from SCSEP as program participants train and work in facilities such as schools, day cares, hospitals and senior centers that face high recruitment rates. These public and nonprofit workplaces benefited from more than 21 million hours of work by her SCSEP participants in 2019. Additionally, the wages these older workers earn are spent on necessities like food, rent, and health care, circulating back into the local economy. and transportation.
Zeroing out funding for SCSEP, as proposed in the House budget, would leave one of the few conduits to employment available to tens of thousands of older, low-income people who want and need to work. It means closing one of the lines. It would also undermine the significant economic benefits that SCSEP provides to local nonprofits, public organizations, and the communities they serve. At a time when the job market is in rifts, our economy needs programs like this more than ever to ensure that the benefits of strong job growth are felt equally, regardless of age. is.
Beth Almeida is a senior fellow at the Women’s Initiative and Veronica Goodman is senior director of workforce development policy in the education division of the Center for American Progress.
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