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&lt;p&gt;Much talk has been generated by all the positive employment news--recently capped off with the BLS’s report that major employment gains were made in professional and business services, healthcare, and leisure and hospitality, and marketing in February. Altogether, theUSsaw a total of 227,000 jobs added throughout the month, despite a steady unemployment rate of 8.3.&#160;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yet a look at the long-term gains and losses in jobs paints a grimmer picture of the new economy. A sea change seems to have occurred in regards to which people the jobs are actually going to, post-recession. To put it in numbers, in the past five years, the BLS reports that people aged 55 and over gained 3.6 million jobs--while younger workers &lt;em&gt;lost&lt;/em&gt; 7.6 million.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though we tend to think of job gains as a uniformly positive occurrence, it’s actually a poor sign of market health when people of retirement age flood the workforce. Not only does it signal that older people can’t afford to stop working,&#160;or trust the economy to support them in their retirement years, but a deluge of experienced workers robs jobs from already vulnerable entry level workers—many of whom just acquired a heap of student loan debt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Take last year’s 2.5 million net job gains: 600,000 of those jobs went to people over 65. This, as recent graduates take unpaid internships and babysit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And that’s assuming young people even have opportunities: teens hit a 20% unemployment rate this summer (a number theUShasn’t seen in thirty years, pre-recession) for the third summer in a row. That lack of valuable job experience may be triggering the 7% unemployment rate we’re currently seeing for the 25-54 age rage. That number might not seem so bad, until you compare it with a healthy 5.9% for senior citizens (the lowest rate, by the way, of any age group).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But don’t be jealous just yet. Many older workers don’t want to be working—they need the insurance coverage, or didn’t grow a big enough nest egg, which is as stressful a situation as being unemployed but young and vital. They also have a harder time finding a job than you—the BLS reports that seniors spend, on average, an extra 31.4 weeks job hunting than young people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/11/10625396-older-workers-seeing-biggest-job-gains&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Older Workers Seeing Biggest Job Gains &lt;/a&gt;(MSNBC)&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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