They say that, but the young and the old being less likely to have employment is fairly typical.  I don't follow why that's so shocking to a lot of these reporters.  Most people under twenty five are either in school or just entering the labor market.  They're unskilled, relative to older workers, so they're not as highly demanded.  Older workers see less employment for various reasons.  Maybe they retire early in one case, or they're too expensive compared with the cost of paying and training the young in another case, or perhaps they're discriminated against in another case.  Whatever the reason, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

From what I've read, the status of older workers is changing a bit, too.  A lot of companies have been making noise in recent years about prefering older workers in the states because of the difference in skills and attitude, which makes sense to me, based on my experience.  I do find that the two groups have a different mentality in many cases.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!