Tip: Get out of the house to find a new job

If you're older than 50 and unemployed, finding work may be the toughest job of your career.

The unemployment rate for people 55 and older is the highest since the Great Depression. While it is lower than the rate for younger workers, older workers tend to stay unemployed longer. In May, the average length of unemployment for people 55 and older was 44 weeks. Younger workers, on average, found jobs about 11 weeks sooner.

"Every time an older worker is unemployed, it's probably an entire family that doesn't have a job," says Steven Greenberg, founder of jobs4point0.com, a job-search site for older workers. "The net pain is much higher."

This recession has been especially brutal for older workers, says Richard Johnson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. "What's changed is that the unemployment rate is increasing more for older people in this recession than in past recessions," he says.

As for what older people can do to raise the odds of success even in a difficult job market, Greenberg says take off the slippers and put on the shoes. "Many older people apply for jobs online and think they are looking for work," he says. "That's not looking for work, that's trying to get lucky."

Greenberg advises spending no more than an hour a day applying for jobs online. Instead, get out of the house and meet with people who can help you. "Most older people will get their next job by networking," Greenberg says. He says make a list of 10 or 20 people who are plugged in to the employed world and meet with them. This can be former co-workers, colleagues or former customers.

And be aware things may get worse. The current recession, which began in December 2007, is the longest since the Depression. Even when things improve, your job prospects may not. In every previous postwar recession, unemployment continued to rise after the recession ended. "I think it's going to be a very bleak employment market for the rest of the year," Johnson says.

Greenberg agrees. "The last few years have been an absolute disaster for older people." It also appears older job-seekers are discouraged. The number of unemployed people 55 and older who said they gave up looking for work, at least temporarily, hit an all-time high last month.