Emil Rasmussen
The 2007-2008 global financial crisis affected people’s lives differently. Data on the unemployed in the US shows that while some lost their fortune, others lost their jobs.
However, not everyone lost their job permanently. The so-called boomer generation – those aged 45-54 in the wake of the crisis – were hit the hardest.
From January 2007, right before the crisis, to May 2010, when unemployment was at its highest, the number of unemployed among this age group had increased by 862 percent. This is more than 100 percent the rate affecting other age groups.
On the flip side, 25 to 34-year-olds were the only age group to have more than one million unemployed in all moments during the crisis. The young had also held the record of unemployment before the crisis, ultimately meaning that the amount of unemployed in this age group “merely” increased by 733 percent.
Many factors may have contributed to this scenario. Older individuals tend to be closer to retirement age, as the youngest do not count on a stable position or contacts to ease their reintroduction to the job market. The so-called boomers may have also suffered in a time of economic change and the loss of job positions that no longer made sense after the crisis.
These data also show how age remains a defining element when analyzing unemployment in such a devastating economic crisis.
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