Senior Associate Alex Berke Quoted in Recent Article Published by the American Bar Association

There was some decent news this week in the employment outlook, depending on how you look at it. The positive is that roughly 1.37 million jobs were added this week and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.4 percent. The negative is that nearly 20 million Americans remain unemployed and of those 1.37 million jobs added over 230,000 hires are census workers, who will be out of a job shortly.

For some, early retirement is a chance to do something else, to spend more time with family, or pursue a passion put off by work. But for others, early retirement, also known by the euphemistic “involuntary separation,” has been an unwelcome occurrence and reminder of people’s status within the workforce, and this trend has been increasing in recent times.

The jobs report, released early Thursday morning, indicates job losses persist, with first-time unemployment claims above 1 million for the second straight week and continuing claims still north of 14 million. This comes as Congress remains on summer recess, having failed to shore up an extension of the enhanced stimulus that was propping up the economy. With the unemployment numbers still shaky, this week we’re taking a closer look at just who is being affected.