Date: Fri, 3 Oct 97 20:42:39 UT From: "Margaret Morganroth Gullette" <mgullette-AT-classic.msn.com> Subject: RE: M-FEM: RE: Midlife downsizing, the age-wage curve, Doug- Thanks for your comments.In the most recent BLS data I've seen, actually a higher percentage of 20-somethings were displaced than those 45-55--but of course the difference between the groups is that the 20s will usually find new work faster. And much of my data shows that college-educated (highly paid) men over 50 are not exempt from job loss although a smaller percentage are displaced than among all men 45-55.. I would love to deconstruct this line they feed the Xers that the only jobs they can get are taken from the Boomers. Any ideas? There's a lot of anecdotal evidence that the "downsizing" of the last few years has really been a matter of bouncing older, more highly paid workers in favor of younger, low-paid ones. In other words, the net employment effects are zero; it's just the age mix that's changing. As I say, this is largely anecdotal. I can't tell if you're implying that women are more the victims of this than men, but if you are, then that may well be wrong. Average job tenure for women has been rising while that for men has been falling. There are different ways to measure. The BLS data has a smaller percentage of women and of managerial professional women between 45-55 losing jobs than of men, but those numbers for women are not neglibile either. And while long job tenure is good, it often means women (particularly single women) hold on to dead-end low-paying jobs to have something. And since women's age-wage peak comes a decade earlier than men's and is about half what men earn in that decade, there's no doubt that women as a group are poorer at midlife.And that's no surprise. What I would like you-all to think about is what measures--government programs, social pressure, union-sponsored, whatever-- would help workers at midlife. I can be a little utopian in this piece. It's to inspire, not to prove how rational I can be about the future. Margaret Doug
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