Today, we launched the Over 50 and Out of Work Web site with a trailer video — check it out!

Paul Nawrocki, 60, finally landed a new job after 99 weeks of collecting unemployment.  Last year, Nawrocki, a former toy company executive, was covered extensively by the media when he began to walk the streets of Manhattan wearing a sandwich board that read:

Almost Homeless. Looking for employment. Very experienced operations and administration manager.  Desperately seeking full-time employment with insurance benefits. For self and family. Disabled wife on 15 medications.”

His lengthy search for re-employment is not the exception for older workers who have lost their jobs in the current recession.  It is the norm.  In February 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that workers 55 and older were out of work on average for 35 weeks compared to 23 weeks for workers aged 16 to 24 years old and 30 weeks for those 25 to 54 years old.

While I was in DC, I couldn’t resist a chance to take an early morning stroll and check out Michelle Obama’s garden, part of her healthy eating campaign.  I was curious to see it because I have planted a vegetable garden every spring since I was a teenager.

Here’s a view of the White House kitchen garden through the fence:

I regret that I couldn’t give it a closer inspection!

And two views of the White House, on a gorgeous April day.

Returned from Washington, DC this afternoon.

We interviewed Richard W. Johnson (on left) and C. Eugene Steuerle, both economists from the Urban Institute who have researched and written extensively about older workers in today’s economy.

We were also able to attend a meeting of the Employment Support Center, founded by Ellie Wegener, as well as interview two more people who are 50+ and currently unemployed.

My Over 50 and Out of Work multimedia documentary project is going gangbusters.

Since the project’s start in mid-January, we have conducted 23 video interviews.  This past Wednesday and Thursday, Sam, videographer/cinematographer, and I were in northeastern Wisconsin, where we interviewed six people who are 50+ and jobless. Three out of the six had worked in the area’s paper mills.  Two took buyouts when their mills downsized; one lost his job when the New Page paper mill closed in 2008.

About 600 workers lost their jobs when the New Page paper mill, owned by Cerberus Capital, 299 Park Ave, NY, NY, ceased operating.  The mill is located on the Fox River in Little Chute, population: approximately       11, 000.

Here’s photo of the shuttered mill and its empty parking lot:

Lawn signs on a few nearby homes still protest the mill’s closing.

Next week, we’ll be in Washington, DC, interviewing economists, as well as more people who are over 50 and out of work.