How to Find a Job After 50: From Part-Time to Full-Time, from Career Moves to New Careers

The over-50 employment sector is a mixed bag of opportunity and angst that is poised for explosive growth, according to freelance journalist Cummings. The opportunity may be driven by job trends that suggest a shortage of five million workers in the U.S. by 2010. The angst is produced by the baby boomers, who are just beginning their struggle to balance retirement ease with the need for productive work and financial security. This primer is meant to help over-50s identify and navigate their options. It offers, in sometimes clunky prose, basic pointers for an array of employment alternatives, including staying on the job with reduced hours and/or responsibilities, returning to work for past employers, starting a new career, working part-time and starting a business. Cummings peppers the book with expert interviews and the words and experiences of older Americans, most of whom voluntarily left high-paying executive positions for a better work/life balance and succeeded, with a misstep here and there, in building new careers and businesses. Somewhat ominously, however, Cummings includes no stories featuring older workers who have been downsized out of blue-collar or frontline service jobs with little or no savings to keep them afloat. (Oct. 24)