Jollity job board for seniors, retirees aims to be go-to resource

A local startup hopes to be the first digital stop for retirees and older Long Islanders looking for work.

Jollity, an online job board launched in late 2021, specifically targets workers 50 and up and is aimed at being a resource for Islanders looking for their second act in the working world, said its founder, Dr. Evan Vieira of Melville.

Vieira, a podiatrist by trade and a partner at Manhasset-based Advanced Foot Care, said the idea came from conversations with his patients.

“One of the things I would hear from a lot of people is they didn’t want to retire because they didn’t want to dip into their savings, or they were laid off and they were looking for something part-time to do,” Vieira said.

While the Woodbury-based operation is small with about 100 job postings, Vieira said he hopes to grow the startup to be a resource for seniors looking for part- and full-time work. The startup does not currently track job placement or have an estimate of how many have found work through the platform.

Vieira said he’s bootstrapped the project himself and estimates he’s invested between $50,000 and $75,000, so far. The jollityjobs.com site is currently free for job seekers and employers, though eventually he plans to charge employers a registration fee and find advertisers.

“We’re trying to build a community that curates and cultivates jobs for that population,” he said.

Job seeker Carl Kirschner, 73, of Dix Hills said he’s used Jollity in the hopes of finding work in retirement.

Kirschner, who learned about Jollity as a patient of Vieira, said he had been looking for part-time or short-term work assignments that would allow him to use his years of experience in academia. But using other larger job boards only brought back what he called “clickbait” ads for jobs that supposedly would match his skill set but were for positions like delivery driver.

“The job never is what they say it’s going to be,” said Kirschner, a former college dean of students at Suffolk County Community College and more recently academic coordinator at now-closed Briarcliffe College.

“At 73, I’m looking for a couple of days here or there to keep myself fresh and to meet new people,” he said.

Reasons for second act

Bernard Macias, associate state director for AARP on Long Island, said there are a few reasons that seniors and retirees might be looking to jump back into the labor market.

“They want to stay social, they want to make a difference, perhaps they didn’t save enough,” he said. “I don’t think anybody ever thinks to save for inflation or recession."

For whatever reason, Macias said, whether it's for socialization or out of financial necessity, older Americans are staying in the workforce longer.

He also noted that AARP has its own online job board aimed at older job seekers.

Ed Slott, a Rockville Centre-based financial and retirement adviser and the founder of IRAhelp.com, said retirees are often in a position of watching their savings slowly deplete, and part-time work — even as little as $10,000 a year — can make a difference.

“Most workers are used to putting money away and watching their savings grow,” Slott said. “Once you stop working and your savings go in reverse … that’s not a good feeling.”

By 2030, 9.5% of the U.S. labor force is projected to be older than 65, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of Americans 75 years and older in the labor force is expected to grow by 96.5% by 2030, according to BLS projections.

Alternative for employers

Mita Parikh, owner of Hidden Smiles Orthodontics in Huntington, has used Jollity to post an opening for a part-time receptionist. She said finding help has been difficult since the pandemic began, and normal job boards haven't been of much help.

“The traditional methods — Indeed, ZipRecruiter and Craigslist postings — weren’t coming through for us,” said Parikh. And while a few applicants did make it further along in the hiring process, she said their schedule requests and apparent work ethic weren't what she was looking for.

After speaking with other business owners in the medical community about hiring challenges, someone suggested Jollity.

"I was like, you know what, the retired generation understands the value of doing a really good job and values showing up to work every day," she said.

She said she didn’t find “our perfect match,” but she plans to put Jollity into her rotation of recruiting tools going forward.