In addition, the share of older workers in low-wage jobs has increased over time, while the share for younger workers has stayed the same. The September share of older workers in low-wage jobs (27.1 percent) is 1.4 percentage points higher than the share 10 years ago (25.7 percent). 

Fifty-three percent of those older workers do not have a pension. BLS figures in the October report are focused on what actually appears to be a rather optimistic unemployment rate of 3.7 percent (the U-3 rate, made up of people without work seeking employment), when compared with the U-6 and U-7 rates. 

For its part, ReLab looked at the U-6 rate of 8.6 percent (U-6 is made up of "total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers," according to the BLS) and the U-7 rate of 10.9 percent (U-6 plus "discouraged" workers), and suddenly the picture looks quite different. 

Back in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an August unemployment rate of 3.5 percent for older workers, seeming to indicate that older workers can just work longer if they don't have sufficient retirement income. But the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research said that "an increasing share of older workers are in 'bad jobs'" that pay less than two-thirds of the median wage, which stood at $880 per week in August. In July of 2016, the report said, 29.1 percent of older workers held such "bad jobs," compared with 27.0 percent in July 2006. 

Those "bad jobs" make it tough for an older worker to save anything additional toward retirement, even assuming that they have access to a retirement plan. And Hollywood could be making it harder, according to a report in the Huffington Post. Pointing to the "disturbing" findings in new research on the subject, the report said that not only are the statistics demeaning, they are contrary to how seniors see themselves. But maybe, one has to wonder, not contrary to how many employers see them — and that could be making it harder for seniors to get, or retain, jobs that will help them make enough money to see them through retirement. 

Studies from Humana and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism indicate that ageism in film is depicting prominent senior characters with demeaning or ageist references. And that's when they show seniors at all—seniors are substantially underrepresented in film portrayals. That could be contributing to employers' attitudes on older employees—how capable they are, how intelligent, even how healthy.