Free Botox perking up job opportunities

Colleen Delsack is a 47-year-old single mother who can’t seem to find a steady job, and she worries that her age may have something to do with it.

So she joined dozens of other unemployed workers Friday to take advantage of free Botox wrinkle injections offered by a Virginia clinic.

“Age is a handicap,” said Miss Delsack, whose home has gone into foreclosure in the 18 months since she lost her job as an account executive with a printing and document-management company.

“There’s so much competition,” she said while waiting to receive about a half-dozen small injections to ease fine lines around her eyes and on her forehead. “And we’re up against kids coming out of college and not making the salaries that we’ve had.”

In an increasingly youth-obsessed culture, Miss Delsack isn’t the only one feeling apprehensive about her age in the workplace.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it received 24,582 complaints of age discrimination in the 12-month period ending in September. That’s a 29 percent increase from the previous year.

“We can’t say for sure why everything is up across the board, but we have a few guesses, one being economic conditions,” commission spokeswoman Christine Saah Nazer said. She noted that complaints generally intensify when the job market deteriorates.

The number of Americans looking for work continues to climb.

The Labor Department announced Friday that employers cut 345,000 jobs in May. That was less than economists projected, but the unemployment rate surged to a higher-than-expected 9.4 percent from 8.9 percent in April.

The growing ranks of the unemployed include Benita Jenkins, who was among the first in line Friday at the Reveal clinic near the Pentagon to accept the unusual offer of free Botox injections.

Miss Jenkins said she was laid off in February from a small nonprofit company where she led a $12 million capital campaign. She has received Botox injections before but had to stop pampering herself when money began running out.

She hopes improving her appearance will help, at least psychologically, in future job interviews.

“This is the longest I’ve ever gone in my life without work,” Miss Jenkins said.

Botox, which paralyzes facial muscles to make lines fade, is the No. 1 minimally invasive cosmetic procedure in the country, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. More than 5 million treatments were done last year.

Shannon Ginnan, a doctor at the clinic, said it’s important for anyone seeking a Botox treatment to have realistic expectations.

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