Added Value -- Turn, Turn, Turn

“The nation's typical worker now retires at age 62, up from 60 a decade ago, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. About 60% of men between 60 and 64 are in the labor force, and 20% of men over 65, up from 55% and 17%, respectively, a decade ago, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The pattern is similar for women.

“But will employers want more older workers?

“‘There's a lot of happy talk around that we're going to have slowing in the rate of growth in young workers and, therefore, employers are going to want to hire older workers just at the time that older workers are going to want to work,’ says Boston College economist Alicia Munnell... ‘We think it's much less clear than that.’

“The ‘happy talk’ case relies on the demographic fact that the ranks of prime-age workers will shrink as the huge baby boom generation ages and on the logic that employers will have no alternative to older workers...

“At the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in Chicago, 40% of 1,000 mainly professional employees are 50 or older and 25% are 55 or older. ‘We want to keep these people as long as we can. They know the business, the values, the customs. And recruitment is becoming more difficult,’ says William Colbourne, senior vice president for human resources...

“For all the heart-warming pictures such efforts produce, they appear to be exceptions. Buyouts of graying colleagues and early-retirement parties are common in many workplaces. ‘Relatively few companies thus far have fully positioned themselves for the coming work-force demographic shifts,’ consulting firm Towers Perrin said in a 2005 report...

“While employers are ‘reasonably comfortable’ with the older workers they currently employ, "they are not keen on retaining even half who want to stay on to age 67 or 69," the Boston researchers concluded. They predict ‘a messy and uncomfortable mismatch with large numbers of older workers wanting to stay on while employers prefer that they do not.’ …

“The image of companies loyally retaining scarce, seasoned workers is at odds with reality. Among male workers between 58 and 62, only 44% still work for the outfit that employed them at 50, down from 70% two decades ago. And even if labor shortages emerge, they argue, many employers will hire younger immigrants, shift work overseas or deploy labor-saving technology (like the cashier-less grocery-store checkout) instead of hiring older workers.”

(“Older Staffers Get Uneasy Embrace.” David Wessel. Wall Street Journal: May 15, 2008. A.2)

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"To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose
under Heaven."