Baby boomers will spend golden years at work
Baby boomers will spend golden years at workAs work force ages, companies must adapt with flexible policies
About 69 percent of baby boomers anticipate working past traditional retirement age, and money and health care are the top reasons. View related photos
By Eve Tahmincioglu MSNBC contributor Updated: 9:11 a.m. ET Aug. 8, 2007
Eve Tahmincioglu
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In the next decade or so, the U.S. workplace will be transformed with an explosion of flexible work schedules and a host of technologies that will make work tasks easier.
What will cause these changes? A boatload of middle-aged workers.
That’s right, by 2020, there will be more 55-plus workers grinding away than at any other time in our history. As a result, labor experts foresee a rush by the nation’s businesses to accommodate the aging workforce.
But it won’t all be milk and honey. Generational differences in the workplace are expected to rise, there will be unprecedented shortages in many industries as large proportions of the work force retires, and we may also see more workers getting sick on the job, with a possible rise in strokes and heart attacks as they age.
“It’s like a train wreck in slow motion,” says Tamara Erickson, co-author of the “Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent,” about the impending shortage of workers and the challenges employers will face.
In 2005, about 24 million or 17 percent of all adult U.S. workers were over 55, compared with a projected 38 million or 24 percent by the year 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 65-plus work force will almost double to 10 million, or 6.4 percent of the total, in 10 years; and those toiling away at age 75 and over will make up about 1.2 percent of the workforce, or 2 million strong. With the work force graying, many workers will choose to punch out and head for the golf course. At typical large companies today, one in five workers are already eligible to retire, and another 30 to 40 percent will be of retirement age in five to 10 years, says Roselyn Feinsod, and expert on the aging work force for consulting firm Towers Perrin. No one knows for sure how many workers will take their Social Security checks and run, but surveys suggest quite a few may have to work deep into their golden years. About 69 percent of baby boomers anticipate working past traditional retirement age, and money and health care are the top reasons, says Deborah Russell, director of workplace issues for AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons. So what’s in store for the world of work? First the good news. Even though working moms and dads have been hitting their heads against the wall for years trying to get flexible schedules to balance work and family, it won’t be their efforts that finally get corporate America on the bandwagon. The tipping point, says Feinsod, is the aging work force. Click for related content Vote: When do you plan to retire? Discuss: When will you retire? Help! I haven't saved enough to retire Companies will be forced to widely adopt flexible hours, job sharing, telecommuting, and more vacation time and less overtime because older workers won’t be willing or able to stay on the payroll unless their employers make some concessions, explains Melanie Holmes, vice president with staffing company Manpower. There will also be opportunities for employees to work out of different company locations, adds Feinsod of Towers Perrin. If a firm has divisions in Northern and Southern cities, for example, workers may be able to live up North during the summer months and in Florida or Arizona during the winter months. Besides workplace flexibility, job-enhancing technologies of all types are expected to pop up in most industries.
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