Legal Research

Boomers better be brainy

From Sabrina Pacifici:

Job Market for Aging Boomers Will Favor Brains Over Brawn

"Baby boomers looking for jobs in growth fields that welcome older workers will want to dust off their diplomas rather than their treadmills, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.

Abstract: "Boomers will probably want to work longer than earlier cohorts, but their continued work requires that employers hire and retain them. Employers value older workers for their maturity, experience and work ethic, but worry about out of date skills and high costs. Slower overall labor supply growth may increase demand for older workers if employers can easily use older workers to do the work once done by younger workers. Future jobs will require less physical demands and more cognitive and interpersonal skills, trends that favor educated older workers, but job opportunities for less educated older workers may remain limited."

Most of the fastest-growing occupations that already employ above-average shares of workers age 55 and older rely on an educated workforce, such as personal financial advisors, veterinarians, social and community service managers, surveyors, environmental scientists and geoscientists, registered nurses, and instructional coordinators. The list also includes postsecondary teachers, archivists and curators, social workers, management analysts, pharmacists, counselors, and business operation specialists...

Will Employers Want Aging Boomers? by Gordon B.T. Mermin, Richard W. Johnson, and Eric J. Toder, looks at the current demand for older workers?especially the 77 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964?and explores how it may change over the next decade. The study examines how changes in the nature of work, different occupations, the characteristics of older workers, and overall labor force growth might affect future job prospects for older Americans."

Cool. Library work is mentioned a few times.

There's hope for me!

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on July 25, 2008 (boomark / email).