Work Keeps Seniors Whistling

Losing a job hurts at any age, but one study suggests that layoffs
of older workers should carry health warnings.

Yale University researchers compared data from the Health and
Retirement Study, an ongoing national survey of people over 51, on
displaced and continuously employed workers. They discovered more mental
and physical health problems among the laid off, especially those who
weren't married. These workers were more likely to report difficulty
performing everyday tasks, such as climbing stairs, and showed more signs
of depression.

The study's findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology:
Social Science, debunk the notion that older workers adapt easily to job
loss. "The story that it doesn't really matter because they're at the end
of their worklife is not upheld by these data at all," says Elizabeth H.
Bradley, Ph.D., study author and a Yale assistant professor of
epidemiology. Older workers may suffer because they identify more closely
with their jobs, she says, and money worries in the last decade of
work--when many Americans are saving for retirement--might also play a
part.

Could interventions that target older workers ease the transition?
Bradley says the answer may lie in data from Europe, where the government
provides a wider safety net for displaced workers. U.S. policy makers are
now faced with an aging population and rising health care costs in an era
of downsizing, but while interventions may lower health care costs, they
won't be free. "It's unclear whether that responsibility should fall to
the private or public sectors," Bradley says. "That depends on your
politics."