By Grace Vitaglione

Marina Drysdale, 61, moved to North Carolina in February 2022 to be closer to her family. She left behind her career as a health unit coordinator in Florida.

But since moving, Drysdale hasn’t been able to find a lasting job near her Eden home in Rockingham County, and she’s worried it’s because of her age.

She’s applied to jobs “right and left” and underwent training to be a dialysis technician. Drysdale said she isn’t physically able to do heavy patient care, but she has decades of experience.

“It’s not because I’m not capable. It’s not because I haven’t taken any training to improve myself, because I have,” she said.

Drysdale said she worries employers think she’ll retire soon so they don’t want to hire her.

“I’m not decrepit,” she said. “I’m very active, and I’m not planning to retire anytime soon — if I get a job.”

Drysdale qualified for North Carolina Medicaid once state lawmakers expanded the program. Before that, she had to put off getting medical tests done, and she struggled to get her medications. Since Medicaid expansion last year, more than 22 percent of new enrollees are people aged 50-64.

Drysdale hasn’t given up. She plans to start a medical assistant training program at the end of January, and she hopes that will eventually lead to a job. 

In North Carolina, people who are 55 and older are much less likely to be employed than their younger counterparts, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce statistics. While that’s partly due to voluntary retirement, some older adults are forced to retire due to health problems, skill requirements and age discrimination. 

That unemployment can take a toll on older adults’ mental and physical health, sometimes compounded by losing access to health insurance, as Drysdale experienced.

It can also be harder for older job seekers to find work. Some programs have stepped up to help, such as the Senior Community Service Employment Program, a national program that enrolls low-income older adults in community service and helps them transition to full-time work.

Dealing with age discrimination

Over a third of North Carolina’s labor force is over 55 years old, according to Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience at AARP. She noted that the biggest barrier to older workers is age discrimination — at the hiring/recruiting level, as in Drysdale’s situation, and within the workplace.

About 64 percent of workers 50 and older have reported seeing or experiencing age discrimination in the workplace, according to AARP. That’s a “staggering number,” Roszkowski said.

While women tend to experience more age discrimination in the beginnings and ends of their career, she added, it’s more of a linear incline for men, she said.

The N.C. Department of Commerce found that older people who claimed unemployment insurance had lower rates of re-employment. In 2017, 61 percent of job seekers aged 55 and above were re-employed one quarter after their layoff date, compared with 68 percent of jobseekers aged 25-54 and 74 percent of those younger than 25. 

Older job seekers who are rehired tend to end up earning lower wages than they did before losing their job, according to the commerce department, even if they typically return to the same industry sector.

That’s changing for some. In an AARP survey released Jan. 16, 24 percent of people 50 and older said they’re considering a job change in 2025 — a 10 percent increase from last year. Making more money was the main reason people cited. 

Nonetheless, three-quarters of people 50 and older said they think their age would be a barrier if they were looking for work.

Affecting health

When people experience unemployment in their late 50s or early 60s, it has a negative effect on their health in the long run, according to a research summary by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

An older worker losing their job unexpectedly often ends up experiencing long periods without health insurance. They also face greater difficulty accessing health care if they’re under 65 and not yet eligible for Medicare. Life expectancy for people who become unemployed at age 58 is, on average, reduced by three years, the article noted.

Age discrimination in the workplace can also be emotionally traumatic for older workers, according to a 2018 report by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Older workers may feel betrayed when they’ve spent much of their career with an employer, only to have that employer jettison them when they get older.

Perceived age discrimination can result in serious negative health effects. That’s in part because aging individuals are exposed to more negative ageist stereotypes that make them feel older than they actually are, the report said. 

Jo Ann Wolfe manages the Senior Community Service Employment Program in multiple counties in northeastern and eastern North Carolina through the National Council on Aging’s resource center in the state. 

The national program, operated by the Center for Workforce Inclusion, is funded mostly by the U.S. Department of Labor. Local partner organizations work with unemployed people who are over 55 years old and whose income is at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. 

Participants work part-time in community service and receive stipends at minimum wage, as well as job training and resources to transition back to regular employment. 

Wolfe said many participants come to her with their self-esteem “battered and bruised.” The program tries to boost their morale, she said.

‘Hide it from the world’

A barrier for many older people trying to reenter the workforce is computer skills, according to Brenda Cogdell. She runs the Senior Community Service Employment Program through the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging in 14 counties in central North Carolina. 

Many employers are open to hiring older people if they have the right skills, she said. Still, she’s heard from participants that if they’re interviewing with a younger person, “they’re immediately brushed right off.”

It can feel embarrassing to need help, she said. But Cogdell knows the program works — she’s been through it herself. 

She worked as a homeless advocate before experiencing heart failure at 57 years old. Cogdell couldn’t work and lost everything she owned.

“I tried to hide it from the world. I didn’t want anyone to know: Brenda Cogdell who used to be the homeless advocate, and here she is homeless,” she said. “She can’t even afford to get her medicine, can’t even afford to get a cell phone. I have one daughter, and I tried to hide it from her.”

Cogdell ended up back in the hospital and later moved in with her daughter. After recovering, she enrolled in the Senior Community Service Employment Program. Ten years later, she’s the program manager.

‘Life happened’

Steve Moore runs the Senior Community Service Enrollment Program in Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender and Onslow counties through United Way of the Cape Fear Area. He said it can be very difficult for older adults struggling with their health to find a job — especially if they can’t afford care.

Carrie Aiken, 61, is from Forsyth County and had to leave the workforce for a few years because she kept getting sick without knowing why. Her doctors weren’t able to figure it out until after she ended up in the hospital. 

Her esophagus was enlarged and had become attached to her lung. Aiken underwent major surgery, and the recovery process was long. Because she wasn’t working, she didn’t have medical coverage. 

“It was rough. Unfortunately, life happened, and it couldn’t be helped,” she said.

After Aiken recovered, she heard about the Senior Community Service Program from a past participant and enrolled in 2019. 

The program helped her upgrade her technology skills and she worked as an office manager at the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem and later at SCSEP. After finishing, she worked with the Board of Elections through a temporary employment agency.

Aiken said the program is “really needed” among older adults.

National efforts

Teams with people of different ages have a positive impact on the bottom line for companies, said Roszkowski of AARP. Age diversity brings increased creativity and innovation. 

“Today’s workforce is made up of five generations,” Roszkowski said. “That has never happened before, and that comes with a lot of different challenges and opportunities.” 

AARP provides virtual webinars and resources like AARP Skills Builder for Work, which offers online courses to help older adults build their skills.

To avoid unconscious bias from recruiters, she said job seekers could consider small changes like removing their graduation date from their resume or replacing an old “hotmail” email address with a Google email.

Employers can also make their job postings friendlier to older adults. Language like “high energy” or “digital native” can discourage older workers, she said. 

“In a tight labor market and with the talent shortages, it does make really great business sense for employers to hire older workers, retain older workers and to benefit from the knowledge and experience that they bring to the organization,” she said.