> I don't think unemployment among 50 year olds is higher today than in 1990. Unemployment numbers don't show it, because that only includes people looking for

> I don't think unemployment among 50 year olds is higher today than in 1990. Unemployment numbers don't show it, because that only includes people looking for work. The missing 50-year-old workers are on disability and don't factor in to labor statistics. The Social Security Disability dole swelled from 5M in 2000 to 9M in 2015, nearly double. And it's fairly certain that these disability recipients skew older than the median age of the working population. http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/dibStat.html http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/dibStat.html (it was responding spottily for me, but search for the url and use google's cache if you need)