by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

February 19, 2009

In an era of disappearing jobs and shrinking investments, one group is feeling the impact perhaps more than any other: those 55 and over. At the younger end of the cohort, those with senior positions perhaps earn more than their younger peers, but that can be a liability on the job market. The fortunate ones may already have paid off their mortgages, but those whose children are still in school may have college tuitions to pay.

Among those of retirement age or older, the imploding stock market has in some cases wiped out retirement savings, bringing seniors back to work and causing them to shudder at the idea of relying on their children.

At a Feb. 10 networking seminar offered by Jewish Vocational Service of MetroWest, where those 50 and over made up the majority of the standing-room-only crowd, NJJN spoke at length with three participants whose stories reflect these challenging situations. The event took place at Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex in Caldwell.

Retirement is not an option

Joseph Rosenbaum
Hometown: South Orange
Career: Advertising executive
Looking for: work as an administrator
Age: declined to provide

Joe Rosenbaum felt the full impact of the stock market plunge. An advertising executive who owned his own South Orange firm, Rosenbaum Advertising, for at least 30 years, he said he was ready to enjoy the full fruits of retirement. But now, he told NJJN, “I have to get a job.”

“I’m looking to refinance my house. In today’s crazy revenue situation, ‘self-employed’ doesn’t stand a chance, even with a high credit score and great credit history,” he said. “The mortgage banks insist on a monthly pay check. I can give an income tax form showing high income, and it doesn’t matter; that can fluctuate and vary. They want a steady pay check.”

Rosenbaum said he wants to refinance for one reason: cash. Asked directly if his portfolio was affected by the downturn, he said yes, then described the situation in the third person.

“A great majority of people invested their retirement plans or their 401(k)s in stocks, in common stocks, and have been hurt very badly. A number of retired people with retirement plans have to go back to work because their stocks have depreciated so badly now they are paying so little in dividends. The returns are fairly meaningless. There are a lot of hurting people. The refinancing is a safety valve.”

Asked if he worries about his own financial future, he said, “Very much. And I’m in good company.”

Rosenbaum lives with his wife, and they have two grown children, one who works in international public health and lives in the Washington, DC, area, and one who is an attorney on the West Coast.

“They are talking about supporting me,” he said, wincing and shaking his head. “There’s a great deal of uncertainty in my group of citizens as well as most young adults and members of the working class.”

But, Rosenbaum said, he is trying to roll with the times. An executive who once hired someone to do his typing, he now adds to his resume fluency in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

“Now everyone does their own,” he said.

‘The way it is right now’

Nick Levitin
Hometown: West Orange
Career: Not-for-profit office manager/administrator with specialty in desktop publishing and systems administration; and videography/photography
Looking for: not-for-profit work two days per week as office manager/administrator
Age: 62

Nick Levitin saw the writing on the wall at the New York Foundation, where he has been the office manager for the last 10 years.

“It was a small foundation of 10 people. In the last five years, the people who have been leaving have not been replaced. We were down to six. And I was one of the oldest employees who had been there one of the longest periods of time,” he said.

In November, the news came: As of January, he would be downsized from full time to three days per week.

“I couldn’t take the news personally, but it was devastating,” he said.

He’s not looking for a new job, but rather a second part-time job with hours that will complement his other position. “I love the job I have,” he said. And he pitches himself.

“I’m an office manager, office administrator with a special area of interest, which is desktop publishing and systems administration,” he explained.

Levitin has two children, a 17-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter, and college expenses are looming. His son, now at West Orange High School, wants to be a classical pianist. “We’ve been going from one conservatory and college to another. So it would be heartbreaking if he wouldn’t be able to go to a place where he could study what he most loves because of financial reasons. He is applying to a variety of places, private and state-run, so hopefully that will work out.

The day Levitin broke the news to his son that his father’s work situation “may affect the choices that he has, he was really remarkable. We had just gone to an audition, and we were driving back. And he said, ‘Well, we’ll make it work, Dad.’ He said, ‘I’ll just have to work that much harder.’” Levitin said with evident pride that his son “said it with conviction, not with resignation.”

Fortunately, Levitin’s wife, who has always worked, is currently development director at the Innocence Project, a Manhattan not-for-profit that works with criminal defendants seeking exoneration.

He said of his income loss, “It creates a certain strain, but it also brings the family closer together. I’ve been able to do a lot of things in my spare time now that need to be done. Both of us have always worked. I’ve been able to devote some time to getting the house in order and working on all kinds of projects we never get to.”

Internally, losing a job also takes a toll. “You know when you are laid off, when you are downsized, you feel a bit like a loser,” he said. And he dreaded attending events like the JVS seminar, where he expected he would “be in a room with a bunch of other losers — it’s a terrible thing.”

But his skepticism turned around. “What you discover is that actually you are in a room with a lot of wonderful people, real winners, people who have spent years making a contribution to the places they have worked.”

Levitin, who has been in shaky financial circumstances before in his life, said he takes a philosophical approach. “You start realizing you don’t need so much. I would hardly consider us examples of materialism, but we’ve gotten really spoiled in this country. There’s something that hurts about contracting but there’s something that’s liberating about it. There’s something liberating about learning you don’t need all the things you think you need, and the things you have are very precious.”

But he acknowledged that there is also a day-to-day impact. “We’re very fortunate in that we’ve been able to pay all our bills. It just means that there’s no extra money to spend on things. It’s basically focusing on necessities for the time being….

“It’s not devastating, it’s just the way it is right now.”

‘Hard not to take it personally’

Sena Messer
Hometown: Montclair
Career: Freelance writer of patient education materials primarily for pharmaceutical companies
Looking for: freelance work
Age: 54

“My business has really slowed down over the last several months,” said Sena Messer, a freelance writer from Montclair. “I feel like the weeks go by, and I can’t believe how little I have accomplished.”

A freelancer for 25 years, she’s had periods of feast and famine, but she’s understandably anxious this time around. “I had one major client and other smaller clients. The major client experienced a loss of some business; they also hired writers on staff,” she said. “Eventually they didn’t have as much need for my services. It took a while for me to realize I was not going to be getting any more work from that source. And that was very demoralizing.”

Messer said she knows the economy has slumped but still finds it hard to understand why people aren’t hiring her.

“I am worried. I really love working and it’s hard to totally figure out why I’m not getting more work right now,” she said. “I feel really confident about my writing skills. I know I’m a really strong writer, but it’s really hard not to take it personally.”

She wonders if she should “reinvent” herself, if she should take a staff writer position. “But every time I’ve thought about that I come to the conclusion that that’s not really what I want to do,” said Messer. “I do a lot of volunteer work and I want to keep doing that. Freelancing has always worked for me.” So she continues to attend seminars to get ideas for networking as well as “pumping myself up.”

It helps, of course, that her husband is also working, so she is not the only breadwinner in the family. She expressed relief that her daughter, a recent college graduate, no longer relies on them for tuition or living expenses. But she is concerned about keeping up with tuition for her son, a freshman at Northwestern University in Illinois.

“I think the burden that we have to bear financially is not quite hitting us in a dire sense, but we’re definitely looking at ways to economize and asking, ‘Should we be budgeting more carefully?’ We’re not really planning vacations. We’re making compromises.”

Meanwhile, Messer takes inspiration from her daughter’s recent job search, which ultimately led to her landing a position at a not-for-profit organization in Manhattan. “She really intensively searched for this entry-level job, and the competition was unbelievable, with people who were way overqualified for these entry-level positions. She lost out on a couple things but when she really got into the rhythm of it, she found this job.”

For now, Messer continues to network, hoping for that next freelance job, still weighing other options. “I’m open to considering a full-time job but not actively considering it right now. I’ve worked with a lot of different companies over the years, and I really need to get back in touch with them and actively network.”

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