The Employment Situation, June 2012

This AARP Public Policy Institute fact sheet highlights the employment situation for older persons as of June 2012.  At 6.2 percent, the June unemployment rate for persons aged 55 and older was lower than May’s 6.5 percent.  Still, nearly 2 million older people were out of work and looking for a job in June. 

Average duration of unemployment among older jobseekers was nearly 56 weeks in June; the percentage of long-term unemployed remained high at almost 53 weeks, far higher than it had been at the start of the Great Recession (23 weeks) but somewhat lower than in May.  Most employment indicators for the older showed relatively little change between May and June.