Professor Annette Nierobisz, Chair of Sociology and Anthropology, presents American Idle: Job Loss Among Aging Americans. This presentation investigates the contemporary experiences of Minnesota workers, age 50+, who have lost employment in a period marked by economic recession, a subsequent long-term jobless recovery, decline of longstanding institutional protections for workers, and a dramatic inversion of the population age demographic. In-depth interviews reveal the insurmountable struggle older workers face from this unprecedented and volatile confluence of socio-economic conditions. The interviewees share their experiences of ageism in the job market, neglected medical needs, evaporating retirement funds, a decline from middle class into poverty, and a damaged sense of self.