jaye crist: i'm a fulfillment associate fulfilling individual orders, and then making sure that all the prand needs to be distributed locally is delivered, so, like delivery driver. paul solman: crist spent his career in a higher echelon of the printing industry than this. for almost 30 years, crist was a manager at printing giant rr donnelle jaye crist: i have always supervised, always managed. and there was part of me, like, this i will be one of those paul solman: no such luck. he was laid off in 2016, his plans derailed when the firm reorganized. economist richard johnson's work has shown th crist is far from alone. riard johnson: we found th more than half, 56%, of workers experience an involuntary employer-related job separation after age 50. paul solman: crist, who'd made $100,000 a year, began looking for a comparable job. but he soon realized -- jaye crist: where i habeen after all those years, with salary and benefits and things, was not what i was going to get if i stayed here. but also, at the same time, i'mt lookini still had kids in school. i had bought a house, all the th

themselves, because they're interdependent. >> reporter: which raises the stakes for workers like jaye cristlthy. >> i was unloading off of one of the trucks and fell y shoulder and back. thank god i didn't break anything. didn't, you know, tear anything, i didn't cut anything. i didn't lose any days of work. and it wasn't you know, it was, i st lucky as hell. and i thought, man, ldat's all it we taken. >> reporter: traditional retirement, as for so many oncer secure omericans, is out of the question. >> so at this point, there's, inthere's like really no s. i me, this, the house, and still paying a mortgage on it is, that's w ft i have. itstrating that, you know, in my mind, somebo who's done the things you kind of were told as a kid and as you wererowing up, you needed to do, you know? learn, youob, wor know, be helpful, get promions, do right by people and then you find yourself at this point in your career goin"" that doesn't mean shit." >> reporter: crist now understands what he didn't when he was in the manager'seat. >> i had to lay off an entire family. husband, wife and da. and i, pr