During the global recession, a lot of older workers took a particularly tough hit.
There were two categories, in some ways. There were the long-tenured workers, those people who probably got a job manufacturing straight out of high school, developed a lot of skills on the job but not necessarily the paperwork to show that they had them. These people had not had to look for a job for an awfully long time. Some of them were pretty hard hit during the global recession. We provided extra employment insurance benefits for them. We provided access to career adjustment training in significant amounts.
We also expanded something that we were pleased to bring in called the targeted initiative for older workers—those aged 55 and up—who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. They may have limited skills and may even be in an area where there are limited opportunities, but they certainly haven't had much opportunity or reason to go looking for a job. We help them in many ways through many different aspects of the TIOW, first of all in how to look for a job and how to match up what skills they have with what jobs are available.
In many cases that was done in partnership with community development projects that were looking for people who have the maturity and the work ethic that develops often over the years. A lot of these people had those skills. We're seeing again tremendous success in helping these people get back to work quickly and in helping them adjust.
Quite frankly, we need their skills and talents at work. There are too many people out there who do not recognize the value that older workers provide. Looking around this room, I'd say there are a lot of us who are pretty close to that 55-year-old age, if not on the other side of it, or who will be soon.