2: The economy may face a SHORTAGE of qualified workers
Both Principal and Home Depot--as well as 11 other companies, including Borders Group and Walgreens--have joined AARP to attract mature workers with online links to jobs and other resources. Looking for work later in life? You can try job sites geared toward older workers like Seniors4Hire.org. Another option is YourEncore.com, which hires retired engineers, scientists and product developers and connects them with companies that need contract employees for projects.
Although Seniors4Hire has some 20,000 jobs posted at any one time, founder Renee Ward says her contacts with job seekers 50 and older suggest there are still "plenty of workers facing age discrimination in the marketplace." And there's little doubt that many firms are failing to prepare for an aging workforce. A recent survey of companies by Ernst & Young and the Human Capital Institute found that more than 85 percent of respondents had no formal retention programs. The study concluded that corporate America is "facing a significant wisdom withdrawal."
That's wisdom that can still be put to effective use. Ohio State University economist Bruce Weinberg has studied older modern American painters and Nobel Prize-winning economists. His conclusion: Older people can be just as creative as younger ones, though in a different way. "Younger people tend to be more theoretical--they stare at the ceiling and the light bulb goes off," Weinberg says. "Older people tend to be more experimental, refining their work though trial and error using their accumulated knowledge." And that accumulated knowledge is finally being appreciated by some companies as critical to their future success.
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