2: The economy may face a SHORTAGE of qualified workers
The position of "older worker" has never been a prestige gig in this country. Even the concept of a retirement age is like a societal frown at the idea of working beyond your mid-60s. And just look at how pop culture portrays older workers as tragic figures, like Lou Mannheim, the 60-something stockbroker played by Hal Holbrook in the 1987 film Wall Street, of whom a younger broker says disparagingly, "Nice guy but a loser.... You want to be coming in here in your late 60s, still pitching?"
Yet, two decades after that film came out, attitudes toward older workers in corporate America show signs of changing. If you're an aging baby boomer, you may suddenly find yourself to be marketable. Increasingly, companies are seeking out folks like you, while also doing more to hold on to older current employees. "Because of the changing demographics of the marketplace, we think mature workers will actually provide a competitive advantage for us," says Mindy Moss, a vice president of human resources at the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines.
The demographic issue cuts two ways. First are all those boomers who started hitting the Big Six-O this year. They're good customers. So it doesn't hurt to have employees of a similar age in customer-service positions. "That population has a fairly high disposable income, and they spend a considerable amount on home improvements," says Dennis Donovan, head of human resources at Home Depot. "We look at this as a very attractive market opportunity."
In demand. Companies aren't just worried about having enough workers who can relate to graying customers. Firms are worried about having enough workers, period. The annual growth rate of the workforce is expected to slow to 0.4 percent by 2010. That will be a huge drop-off from the 1.1 percent average annual increase of the 1990s. Rand economist Lynn Karoly says the slowing rate of workforce growth is caused primarily by a sharp decline in the birthrate after the baby boom. "Employers will begin seeing more competition in terms of filling their employee ranks," Karoly says, "especially for highly skilled workers."
While government projections show more jobs than workers in the coming years, they fail to take into account that many people hold more than one job. Still, if you're nearing retirement age, the workforce's slowing growth could mean a better deal for you if you stay on the job, as employers bend over backward to accommodate valued employees, even if they have to deal with family, age, or disability-related issues to do so. Indeed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the annual growth rate of workers 55 and older will be four times that of the overall labor force through 2014. As a way of retaining older workers, Principal helps them find other positions in the company if they want to dial back their hours. The company also has a "Happy Returns" program where, working with temp agency Manpower, retirees can come back to work as temps after a six-month separation, with no interruption in benefits. In addition, Principal allows employees who are caregivers for parents or spouses to return to work at half-time status for 12 weeks after a family leave while receiving full benefits.
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.
This story appears in the June 12, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.