Starbucks has said it will discontinue its Odyssey non-fungible token beta program and members “have until March 25, 2024, to complete any remaining journeys.” Starbucks stated on its FAQ page that it will keep its NFT community in mind and is working to find a place for its members to connect in the future. Starbucks […]
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The inaugural flight of an Avelo Airlines Boeing 737-800 takes off from Hollywood Burbank Airport to Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa on April 28, 2021.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
In the nearly four years since the Covid-19 pandemic upended air travel, the largest U.S. airlines have returned to profitability. The CEOs of two upstart airlines that launched in the middle of the pandemic say they’re about to join them.
Avelo and Breeze Airways, two low-cost carriers that debuted in 2021 when U.S. air travel demand was more than 30% below pre-pandemic levels, have both grown their operations rapidly.
They’ve launched dozens of new routes across the country, and their founders say their strategy of linking cities where there’s less competition from large carriers is paying off. Think Los Angeles’ Hollywood Burbank Airport, rather than Los Angeles International, or Islip, Long Island, over New York City.
“When you have Goliaths, and you’re just David, it’s really hard,” said Avelo Airlines CEO Andrew Levy.
Delta, American, United and Southwest together control about three-quarters of the U.S. market, according to Cirium data.
Avelo says it flew 2.3 million customers in 2023, and that its planes were more than 80% full on average. Breeze flew more than 2.8 million travelers last year, and its flights were 77% full, according to the company. The carriers are still tiny. For comparison, Southwest Airlines, the largest domestic carrier, flew more than 137 million passengers last year.
Yet, Avelo reported its first profitable quarter in the last three months of 2023, and a company spokesperson said the airline will likely turn an annual profit in 2024. It brought in revenue of $265 million for the full year 2023, up 74% from the prior year.
Levy said he had expected the airline to turn a profit sooner, but high fuel costs during a period of broad inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago pushed back the timeline.
Breeze is also on track for its first profitable year in 2024, said CEO David Neeleman.
David Neeleman, founder and CEO of Breeze Airways, before boarding the airline’s inaugural flight at Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida, on May 27, 2021.
Matt May | Bloomberg | Getty Images
It typically takes two to four years from launch for airlines to turn a profit, said Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry consulting firm. Avelo and Breeze each faced additional challenges that have weighed on the entire industry, including a jump in oil prices, supply chain snarls and shortages of pilots and air traffic controllers.
“The fact that the airlines are both still operating is a credit to [Levy’s and Neeleman’s] visions, their leadership, but also the dedication of their employees,” Harteveldt said.
Both airlines have staked a claim in the low-cost carrier segment, which also includes Frontier and Allegiant, which offer base fares, add-ons and secondary airport flights.
Avelo flies to about 50 destinations and operates out of six bases including Connecticut’s Tweed-New Haven Airport and Delaware’s Wilmington Airport. Many of its destinations are from the Northeast to popular vacation destinations in Florida and South Carolina, but it also serves destinations in California and other western states in the U.S.
The carrier moved beyond the continental U.S. in 2023 when it launched service to Puerto Rico and will likely expand to international destinations this year, Levy said.
Breeze, which Neeleman founded after also starting JetBlue Airways and Brazilian carrier Azul, mostly eschews major hubs and flies out of about 50 airports such as New York’s Westchester County Airport and Akron-Canton Airport in Ohio.
It flies to standard vacation destinations, but also offers cross-country flights from cities such as Hartford, Connecticut or Charleston, South Carolina, to destinations including Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It hopes to launch international service by 2025.
Avelo and Breeze have both continued to announce new routes and destinations this year. Avelo had 11 routes shortly after launching in the summer of 2021 and now has about 75, while Breeze flew about 16 routes that summer and is currently selling roughly 180.
A Breeze Airways airplane on the tarmac at Tampa International Airport in Tampa, Florida, on May 27, 2021.
Matt May | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Breeze and Avelo sell base fares — some as low as double digits — and charge fees for checked luggage and advanced seat assignments, upcharges that have become common not just among budget airlines, but most large carriers, too.
Breeze’s lowest-fare option allows travelers to bring on only a personal item, but the airline also sells first class seats and extra legroom options with more amenities. Neither airline’s base fare includes a carry-on bag.
Offering low airfares has made industry-wide cost increases all the more daunting for Avelo and Breeze. The nationwide shortage of pilots following the pandemic and rising labor costs, for example, have posed a challenge.
Large airlines, which can offer pilots big salaries, have hired away pilots from smaller carriers in recent years to staff up after the pandemic.
“What you really want to watch with pilots is attrition. … We had an attrition rate that was higher than we liked, and now it’s where we want it,” said Neeleman.
The carrier has many first officers who are poised to be upgraded to captain, helping alleviate the shortage, he added.
Airlines have also struggled with late deliveries of aircraft and difficulties getting thousands of replacement parts.
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Avelo Airlines Andrew Levy speaks at Hollywood Burbank Airport in Burbank, California, on April 7, 2021.
Joe Scarnici | Getty Images
Avelo has faced delays in delivery of its used Boeing 737 aircraft that it leases, CEO Levy said. The company currently has 16 planes in its fleet and has five on order.
“The whole aviation supply chain system has been mucked up since Covid. And it still is not quite back to what it was,” Levy said.
Breeze said last month that it will exercise options on 10 more Airbus A220 aircraft. The company will exclusively fly the A220 for its commercial service by the end of 2024. It currently flies 22 A220s and will have 32 in operation by the end of 2024, according to Neeleman.
Neeleman said Breeze is aiming to be profitable before it decides whether to file for an initial public offering or another option. Avelo also hopes to achieve sustained levels of profitability before an IPO.
Levy said Avelo’s focus is “on getting to a point where the company is IPO ready,” and that he has no interest in selling the company.
Some airlines, particularly low-cost carriers, have in recent years looked to merges to chip away at the dominance of the big four carriers. JetBlue and Spirit announced plans to combine in July 2022 in a deal that would have created the fifth-largest airline in the U.S., though a federal judge blocked that merger in January. Those airlines have appealed that ruling.
Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines plan to combine, though they’ll continue to operate the brands as distinct carriers.
Both Levy and Neeleman said there is room for multiple players in the low-cost carrier space.
“The more competition we have in the U.S. airline industry, the better it is for the traveling public,” Atmosphere Research Group’s Harteveldt said.
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.
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The S&P 500 is likely to tumble 23% to 3,500 points by mid-2024, JPMorgan’s charts guru says.
Jason Hunter, the bank’s head of technical strategy, views a US recession as very likely.
Hunter sees cash and Treasury bonds are safer bets than stocks today.
Prepare for the S&P 500 to crash 23% by next summer and a recession to take hold, JPMorgan’s top charts guru has warned.
The stock market is mistakenly pricing in a “soft landing” for the US economy, where the Federal Reserve succeeds in crushing inflation without causing a recession, Jason Hunter told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday. But investors will soon realize the outlook is darker than they thought, sparking a sell-off in stocks, the bank’s head of technical strategy said.
“You tend to find your way into a bear market that’s eventually associated with a recession way more often than not,” Hunter said, pointing to the currently inverted yield curve as a reliable indicator of economic pain. “The odds are stacked in favor of a hard landing, actually.”
The Fed has hiked interest rates from nearly zero last spring to north of 5% today in a bid to curb historic inflation. Many stock investors are betting the US central bank will cut rates next year, boosting asset prices and stimulating growth. However, they may be too optimistic as the Fed is unlikely to loosen its monetary policy until the economy cools.
“We’re going to have to go to stall speed,” Hunter said. “That’s what enables the Fed to start easing in the second half of the year.”
“The market’s going to have a significant gut check of whether inertia’s going to carry to a recession or not,” he continued. “Stocks should pull back.”
The benchmark S&P 500 index is likely to slump to 3,500 by the middle of next year in a “retest of the lows” of 2022, Hunter said. His signaling algorithms are already flashing red, suggesting investors should pare their stock positions and start to hedge, he noted. Cash and 2- or 5-year Treasuries look far safer to him than equities today, he added.
More positively, Hunter suggested that stocks, buoyed by lower interest rates, could register fresh highs in 2025.
Wall Street strategists are divided over where the market is headed from here. For example, RBC’s head of US equity strategy, Lori Calvasina, told Yahoo Finance on Monday that the S&P 500 could hit a record high of 5,300 points next year.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Most investors know that the holiday season is a crucial time of year for retailers, but it’s not just brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce companies that depend on the seasonal shopping season.
The gift-giving time of year is also key for the advertising industry, consumer products makers, logistics companies, video entertainment providers, fintechs, and others. Consumer demand is also a bellwether for the broader U.S. economy as consumer spending makes up roughly 70% of GDP, meaning investors of all stripes should be paying attention to how the holiday season goes.
While the shopping boom won’t kick off until next week after Black Friday, there are a number of signs showing that investors could get a lump of coal from Santa this holiday season. Let’s take a look at them and discuss what you should do as an investor.
Image source: Getty Images.
Companies that have reported earnings in the last week or two have good insight into the holiday season as the quarter is nearly halfway through, and a number of companies have cut their upcoming guidance.
GXO Logistics (GXO 0.80%), for example, the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics company, recently cut its organic revenue growth guidance for the year from 6%-8% to 2%-4%. GXO CFO Baris Oran explained the move on the earnings call, saying, “For this holiday season, we are seeing lower customer volume growth than anticipated, particularly in consumer-focused sectors, ” and added, “In addition, some seasonal Christmas pop-up projects will not recur this year,
because of lower customer volumes.” GXO generates roughly $10 billion in annual revenue, so the dollar value of the goods it ships is much greater than that.
Omnichannel retail makes up nearly half of its revenue, but it has a diversified range of customers across industries like manufacturing, food and beverage, and consumer electronics, and its own customers seem to be responding to sluggish consumer demand by cutting back on their warehousing needs.
Bill Holdings (BILL 3.20%)helps nearly 500,000 small and medium-sized businesses manage their accounts and automate payments. In its recently released fiscal first-quarter earnings report, the company said that growth would slow significantly in its current quarter. It blamed macroeconomic challenges, as CEO Rene Lacerte explained, “As a result of higher interest rates and tighter credit markets, capital and cash have become less affordable and available for SMBs. Some of our larger businesses have scaled back their spend while both customers and their suppliers became more selective with their payment choices.”
Bill Holdings handled $70 billion in transactions in the fiscal first quarter, showing it has its finger on the pulse of small businesses, which make up a significant portion of the U.S. economy.
Finally, The Trade Desk (TTD 0.62%), the leading demand-side platform (DSP) in digital advertising, recently issued disappointing guidance for the holiday quarter, citing an uncertain macroeconomic environment and pointing to specific challenges in automotive and consumer electronics, including media and entertainment as well as cellphones.
The Trade Desk counts more than half of the S&P 500 index as its customers, so its guidance cut shows that major companies are also cutting back on advertising heading into the peak selling season.
The factors noted above should become clearer after retail earnings season over the next couple of weeks, but there’s a lot of evidence, including the restart of student loan payments, that retailers and others who depend on holiday shoppers could be in for a rough quarter.
For investors, it’s a good idea to make a watch list for stocks to buy if they fall, as the macro challenges will eventually pass.
A few I’d consider adding are Target (TGT 17.75%), which has been struggling all year with weak consumer demand but has successfully differentiated itself in the broader retail industry; Home Depot (HD 1.50%), whose fortunes are more connected with the housing market than with consumer discretionary, but still benefit from holiday shopping; and Walt Disney (DIS 3.14%), which depends on holiday travelers to its theme parks, moviegoers, and gift-givers shopping for toys and other Disney-themed products.
Long-term investors know that sell-offs are the best times to buy high-quality stocks as these stocks go on sale due to temporary challenges. Take advantage of what is shaping up to be a weak holiday season by going shopping for your own stocks when they fall into the bargain bin.
Jeremy Bowman has positions in Bill, GXO Logistics, Target, The Trade Desk, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bill, Home Depot, Target, The Trade Desk, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends GXO Logistics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
A “Now Hiring” sign is posted in the drive thru of a McDonald’s restaurant on July 07, 2021 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
More wage hikes are coming across U.S. states in 2024 and many Main Street businesses may feel the pinch.
Not only are wages generally up from year-ago figures given the hot labor market, but minimum wage rates are rising in many states as a result of new laws. These can be a double-whammy to small businesses already dealing with inflationary pressures. At the same time, businesses know they need to pay more to attract top talent.
“It’s a very precarious situation that small businesses find themselves in,” said Steve Hall, vice president of economic development lending at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a community development financial institution.
Here are some of the biggest wage hikes set to impact Main Street in the coming year:
Beginning on April 1, 2024, California’s minimum wage for the state’s 500,000 fast-food workers will increase to $20 per hour. By comparison, the average hourly wage for fast-food workers in 2022 was $16.21, according to a state release announcing the change, which cites a 2022 research brief from The Shift Project think tank.
Companies like McDonald’s and Chipotle have already said they are likely to raise prices to counteract the impact of the new law.
Chipotle chief financial officer, Jack Hartung, told analysts on a company earnings call that the chain will likely raise prices in California by a “mid-to-high single-digit” percentage. And McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski told analysts he couldn’t pinpoint the exact amount, but price hikes were likely to ensue.
This targeted food sector increase is separate from California’s hike to its minimum wage, which is rising to $16 in 2024 from $15.50, a 3.2% climb. Some cities and counties in California have higher local minimums.
Other states are raising the minimum wage, in part to attract workers to those areas of the country, Hall said.
Currently, 30 states and Washington, D.C., have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Even so, there’s a big disparity between minimum wage rates across the country, based on factors such as local cost of living.
Some states have set the bar significantly higher than the federal rate, and in many cases, levels are slated to rise in 2024 and beyond. Hawaii, for example, is set to raise its minimum wage to $14 in January, up 16.7% from the current $12 rate. Last year, the state set a plan for its minimum wage through 2028 when it will be $18 per hour. The state hiked its rate in 2022 for the first time since 2018 when the minimum wage rate was set at $10.10 per hour.
Nebraska’s rate is also going up in 2024 to $12 from $10.50, a 14.3% jump.
Maryland’s rate, for companies with 15 or more employees, will increase to $15 from $13.25, a 13% jump.
Delaware’s minimum wage is rising to $13.25 in 2024, up from its current level of $11.75, a 12.8% jump.
Wage growth in the U.S. labor market has started to slow as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases cool off the economy. But wages, generally, are still increasing, which has an impact on small businesses’ ability to attract and retain top talent. Job-stayers reported a 5.7 percent year-over-year pay increase in October, according to ADP data, which analyzes the wages and salaries of nearly 10 million employees over a 12-month period. Pay growth for job-changers was 8.4 percent, ADP said.
In the most recent government nonfarm payroll report for October, average hourly earnings increased 0.2% for the month, less than the 0.3% forecast, while the 4.1% year-over-year gain was 0.1 percentage point above expectations. As growth has slowed somewhat, pay gains are still higher than before the pre-pandemic levels of roughly 2% to 3% growth, according to ADP.
Meanwhile, some of the largest companies in the nation continue to put pressure on the hiring competition, such as Bank of America, which last moth raised its minimum wage to $23 an hour and targets a minimum wage of $25 by 2025.
Employers want to treat their workers fairly, but they also need to figure out where the money to increase wages is coming from, said Molly Day, vice president of public affairs at the National Small Business Association. Some may pare back on benefits, hire fewer workers or like the big fast-food companies, raise prices for consumers. But those moves can have implications on the broader business. “It’s a really hard position that small businesses are in, especially when it’s such a big jump,” Day said.
The impact could be even higher for low profit-margin businesses. Instead of hiring three high school students for the summer, maybe they’ll decide to hire one or two. “I think that’s a choice that many small business owners will have to make,” Day said.
Indeed, business owners will have to weigh the pros and cons of efforts they can take to manage the wage increases.
“The last thing we want to do is make changes in the ways we do business that’s going to negatively affect our employees and make them feel not valued,” said Zachary Davis, co-founder and chief executive at The Glass Jar, a farm-to-table restaurant group in Santa Cruz, Calif.
However, customers don’t like when you raise prices, so communicating with them about the reason for the increase is critical. “We’re not out to try to take more from our customers than they can afford, but we have to adapt to accommodate wage increases,” Davis said.
Certainly, employees value competitive wages. Twenty-four percent of respondents said having competitive wages was the most important factor in deciding where to work, according to a recent survey from small business HR vendor Homebase.
Higher wages generally translate into happier employees, less turnover and higher productivity, said Leo Carr, executive president of The Elite Group, a professional development and training organization in Southfield, Mich.
However, small businesses still have to consider what wage growth over time could do to the bottom line. It may be sustainable now, but “down the road it may not be,” Carr said.
Even so, many business owners are resigned to the idea of paying more for workers, given that they can’t otherwise find good employees. “They’ve given up on the idea that paying more for a workforce is a bad thing,” Hall said. “Now they’re just saying, ‘Give me a workforce.'”
Trellor (TRB) has been one of the winners of the recent crypto market rally after going from a monthly low of $43 to over $115 in less than two weeks. This impressive rally has triggered heightened interest in the cryptocurrency leading to more momentum for the digital asset. However, not everyone is buying into this bullish fantasy as one crypto analyst has predicted a rapid decline in price for the digital asset.
A TradingView crypto analyst has given reasons for why they see the Trellor (TRB) price crashing in the coming days. The post which included a chart of TRB depicted the price falling back down below the $60 mark once more.
According to the analyst, the first indicator of the coming crash is the fact that there has been a decline in the trading volume of TRB. They showed this in the chart, which showed that the volume drop is happening amid the price rally that the coin still seems to be undergoing.
Also, the crypto analyst believes that this coin has now entered the “extremely overvalued and overbought” level. Now, usually when a coin is overvalued and overbought, it often precedes a crash in price as investors rush to secure profits. This could be what happens in this case, especially given the fact that the majority of holders are in heavy profits.
Source: Tradingview.com
The analyst points out that the TRB profitability is incredibly high, with 95% of holders in profit at the time that the analysis was posted. This is corroborated by data from IntoTheBlock, which showed a small drop in the number of profitable holders at 93% but with 0 holders in a loss. The remaining 7% are shown to be sitting at neutral which means they purchased their coins at the same prices as the current market price.
This lends credence to the analyst’s expectation of a price decline, especially when these investors who are in profit begin to sell their coins.
TRB still holding $110 | Source: TRBUSDT on Tradingview.com
When it comes to how far the crash can go, the crypto analyst sees an incredible drop in price coming. They believe that there is no way for the bulls to sustain the current momentum which has gone on for days “without heavy CORRECTION.”
The analyst believes that the price of Trellor (TRB) will see at least 50% crash from the current level. However, the expectations are not given only for a crash. They explain that there is the possibility that the price will continue to go up, in which case it reaches as high as $135 to $155. But still maintain the expectation of a crash.
In a follow-up comment, the analyst revealed that they had decided to start shorting the TRB coin. Their price entry is shown to be $110 with three take profit targets set for $70, $52, and $41, and a stop loss placed at $161.
The Trellor (TRB) coin, despite falling around $9 in the last day, is still up a significant amount. It is currently sitting at $111 at the time of writing, but its daily trading volume is down over 35% in the same time period.
When Eric Schauer was laid off last July at age 55, he wasn’t too worried about landing a new position.
A senior manager in Albany, N.Y., Schauer figured the generous severance package he got from his company in the chemicals industry would tide him over until he found a new job in the tight labor market. Nearly a year later, he’s been a finalist for a handful of positions but hasn’t been hired yet. Schauer suspects his age may be to blame.
“Once they get me in person,” he says, “that’s where it ends.”
His experience is hardly unique. Only about half of Americans work continuously throughout their 50s, according to an analysis of Health and Retirement Study data by researchers Beth Truesdale, Lisa Berkman, and Alexandra Mitukiewicz in the recent book, Overtime: America’s Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer. Among the top reasons are being laid off or pushed out of work, health concerns, and caregiving responsibilities, according to the authors. While lower-income workers are most likely to be affected, the issue spans demographics.
The financial fallout is serious. Common advice assumes you can increase your retirement savings in your 50s, when, presumably, you can afford to make the extra contributions that the Internal Revenue Service allows for workers ages 50 and over. But for those out of work, not only can be it become impossible to save, but some are forced to do the opposite—raiding retirement accounts to pay for living expenses.
If you’re not steadily employed in your 50s, you’re less likely to work beyond that. Eighty percent of those who worked continuously in their 50s continued to work into their next decade of life, versus just 35% of those who were intermittently employed, according to Overtime.
In the popular imagination, you work up until you decide to retire. But for many, the reality is less linear.
It’s not up to individuals to fix the structural problems that can prevent older workers from staying employed, like ageism and the dearth of paid family leave. But there are some steps that you can take to prepare for a decade that could be bumpier than expected. Here’s what to do:
Workers age 50 and over are allowed to make what the IRS calls “catch-up contributions” to their retirement accounts. For 2023, the amounts are an extra $7,500 for 401(k) and similar plans, and an extra $1,000 for individual retirement accounts. Only about 16% of eligible workers made these contributions in 2022, according to Vanguard’s How America Saves 2023 report.
Ideally, workers will have been contributing to their retirement accounts all along, so they won’t have to catch up in their 50s. “I think of catch-up contributions as panic contributions,” says Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economics at the New School. “That’s what Congress should have called them.”
The importance of starting retirement contributions early is typically framed in terms of compound interest. If you begin contributing $475 a month to a retirement account at age 22, you’ll have $2.4 million by age 67, versus just $1.1 million if you wait until 32, and only $450,040 if you wait an additional 10 years until 42, assuming annualized 8% returns, according to an illustration by MassMutual.
As important as compound interest is, it’s also worth thinking about contributing early as risk management. You may not be in a position to catch up in your 50s, so don’t wait. Save what you can now, even if it’s just enough to get your company match. And think of catch-up contributions as an opportunity to turbocharge your savings after decades of steady contributions.
While Schauer’s unemployment hasn’t been financially ruinous, his retirement progress has stalled. He and his wife have no children, and his wife’s job in project management has helped keep them afloat. But he is no longer contributing to his 401(k), and she is contributing only a minimum amount. “We’re kind of stagnating on retirement,” he says.
Rand Spero, president of Street Smart Financial in Lexington, Mass., talks to clients frequently about their job security and how they would pay their bills if they lost their work. “I get a range of responses, from ‘I could get 10 jobs tomorrow’ to ‘That’s pretty scary,’” he says.
He advises clients to keep at least six months’ worth of expenses in a liquid emergency fund. Those who anticipate a harder time landing a job if they become unemployed might want to save even more. If that’s a stretch, homeowners who qualify for a home-equity line of credit might want to open one while they’re still employed, so it can function like an emergency fund if they lose their jobs, Spero says.
In addition to padding an emergency fund, older workers who feel their jobs are precarious might want to dial back their spending. “In your 50s, you have a certain lifestyle,” Spero says. “The question is, what is fixed and what is discretionary?” Taking a more modest vacation—or deciding not to splurge on a new car—can help you build a buffer to withstand future financial shocks.
Hugh Taylor saw the writing on the wall in 2009, when he got laid off from
IBM
at age 44 in a mass layoff that affected thousands of employees. He didn’t want to find himself in that position again, so he resolved to become his own boss. After spending a couple of years as the head of marketing for a start-up, he’s been working steadily as a freelance content writer for the past 12 years.
Now 58, Taylor has watched some of his peers struggle. A 1992 graduate of the Harvard Business School, he has seen former classmates get sidelined by health concerns or a failure to adapt to changing circumstances.
Photograph by Peter Larson
People who get laid off in their 50s often seek to replicate their prior positions and salaries in their new positions. However understandable, this impulse often holds them back. “The idea that you’re just going to go from one Fortune 500 company to another in the same role—it happens, but it’s not easy,” Taylor says.
David Wiczer, associate advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and a research fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, says it’s normal after a period of unemployment for people in their 50s to get offered a lower salary than the one they left. In fact, his research has found workers 56 and older earn about a quarter less on average in their new job after they’ve remained unemployed for at least a month.
His advice? Take the lesser offer. Once you’re in the job, you can try to maneuver your way into something better. “The best way to get back to where you were is to be employed,” Wiczer says.
For his part, Schauer has come to realize that his salary expectations might be putting prospective employers off. “Maybe I can’t be too choosy,” he says.
He reads widely and has kept himself current on developments in his field. In interviews, he tries to leverage his emotional intelligence as an asset. While his job search has grown demoralizing, he’s not giving up.
“I still feel like I have something to contribute,” Schauer says.
Write to Elizabeth O’Brien at elizabeth.obrien@barrons.com
