A Laid-off Older Worker Retrains

Barbara Rose, writing for the Chicago Tribune, tells the story of one 57-year-old worker has started to retrain his hands and his head for a new set of workplace skills after the Chicago lamp factory where he worked for decades closed in 2005. According to her article, he and other Cooper employees qualified for up to 2 1/2 years of unemployment benefits and training through the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program for workers who lose jobs to foreign competition, but that as few as 15% percent of Illinois workers who are eligible access the training.

"For older workers, a lot of them really question whether they can go back to school," said Rick McHugh, Midwest coordinator for the nonprofit National Employment Law Project.

Source: "Retooling a career, a life" Chicago Tribune (March 31, 2006)