It's an age old problem recast.

It's an age old problem. A few retort there is no solution. But I remain mesmerized by the problem because it is the penultimate age old problem - old age job hunting that is.

For example, my friend was a super timeshare sales person. Then the timeshare business went south faster than a speeding bullet.  She went back to school and graduated with a degree in nursing. She is still out of a job. She is 67. She is convinced she can not get a job because of her age. She is not alone because she is in the company of the many.

It is an age-old problem as my mom used to say, but it means something entirely different today than when my mom used to say it. I have a dozen friends with similar stories and it is, in some instances, shredding the fabric of tight knit families. The Fed does not help to provide a solution.  They seem more fascinated  by spinning statistics than spinning serious solutions to this age old problem recast for the extended lives of the 21st century.

For example, the labor department, as you may have read recently, has began spouting a new statistic. It is the number of job openings. And would you believe it? It is on the rise. The labor department recently reported that there are only 3.4 people now looking for each job. What a relief?  Their conclusion is almost ludicrous. It assumes that all jobs are equal - that all people are the same and everyone knows about all the jobs and further that the jobs in Miami are easily accessible to people in San Diego. These new labor department statistics are obviously assiduously researched and ambitiously conceived to make us all feel better. It is a serendipitous statistic. No doubt someone in the labor department has an academic penchant for trivia.

Here is an idea. The solution is "set asides." The Feds have business contract set asides for practically every identified category of people in America, except set aside contracts for seniors. We are underrepresented. No, I am not joking. There are set aside contracts for small business, women owned business, minority owned business, veteran owned  business and many other business categories. Regardless of your political principles, set aside contracts have worked effectively in channeling business contracts from both the state and federal agencies to specific business categories.

It's going to happen because seniors may be  disproportionately out of work, but not out of life and not out of energy. It's and age old problem recast and begging for a solution. Maybe not mine, then what do you suggest?