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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County authorizing the establishment of a program geared towards providing internships for individuals aged 50 and over within the Office of County Council.
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WHEREAS, according to the non-partisan US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a 2013 analysis survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) data it stated that around 41% of Americans 55 years or older have no retirement savings whatsoever and only 52% have retirement savings in a defined contribution plan or Individual Retirement Account (IRA); and
WHEREAS, further according to this same GAO report 27 percent of all households age 55-64 have neither retirement savings nor a pension. Their median net worth is about $9,000.00 and 91 percent in this group have less than $25,000 in financial assets; and
WHEREAS, based upon this GAO report it appears that those who are 50 years old and older need further employment in order to fund their retirements; and
WHEREAS, the worker participation rate in America is close to 38-year low as there are 94 million people not currently working; and
WHEREAS, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) the incidence of long-term unemployment increases with age. In 2014, for example, 22.1 percent of the unemployed under age 25 had looked for work for 27 weeks or longer, compared with 44.6 percent of those 55 years and older; and
WHEREAS, further the BLS found that as the duration of unemployment increases, the likelihood of becoming employed in the following month declines. In 2014, about 35 percent of people who had been out of work less than 5 weeks found work in the next month; about 11 percent of people who had been out of work for 1 year or longer became employed in the following month; and
WHEREAS, according to a New York Times article, "The Human Disaster of Unemployment," (May 12, 2012, Dean Baker and Kevin Hassett):
ยท Someone between age 50 and 61 who has been unemployed for 17 months has about a 9 percent c...
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