Book: "Mid and Late Career Issues: An Integrative Perspective"

The University of Florida has announced the publication of Mid and Late Career Issues: An Integrative Perspective," which finds that older workers learn more quickly and have more drive than some employers might believe. Based on a synthesis of the limited literature on the topic as well as numerous in-depth interviews with older workers and recent retirees, the authors challenge the stereotypes associated with older workers, such as they are more difficult to train and they lack energy compared with younger colleagues.

The book is co-authored by Mo Wang, an associate professor of management and co-director of the Human Resource Research Center at the Warrington College of Business Administration, Deborah A. Olson, an associate professor of management and leadership at the University of La Verne (Calif.), and Kenneth Shultz, a professor of psychology at California State University, San Bernadino.

According to the book, older workers are often better at certain types of work, such as customer service, because they are better equipped to deal with emotional aspects of the job. Experiences such as raising children and caring for elderly parents provide older workers with the skills to deal with emotional obstacles. Such life experience also benefits workers when they change jobs or face layoffs.

“We really found no basis to argue that older workers are harder to train than younger workers,” Wang said. “This stereotype often contributes to employers’ unwillingness for hiring older workers.”

Wang said that when workers reach their early 40s, their career priorities could change. No longer preoccupied with advancement, older workers reassess their position and value.

“When you get to be 40 or 45, your future in your organization becomes clear,” Wang said. “You’re thinking less about climbing the career ladder. You begin to think of other ways to have a legacy.”

Source: University of Florida News Release (September 7, 2012)

Australia: IAG Chief Addresses Diversity, Harnessing Energy of Older Workers

Mike Wilkins, Managing Director and CEO, Insurance Australia Group (IAG), addressing the Australian Human Rights Commission, believes that while there are things government can do to help make employment a more viable option for older workers, business has the responsibility to help change community attitudes around older workers and to walk the talk.

In describing the diversity initiatives undertaken by IAG, Wilkins pointed out that "diversity is really about diversity of thought" even though "diversity of gender, ethnicity and age are positive lead indicators of a healthy organisation." To this end, IAG ran unconscious bias sessions with its leaders to help them recognize their thought process when they make employment decisions, so that, for example, one doesn't automatically assume that an older person may not have the technical nous required in a modern workplace.

In addition to regularly promoting and celebrating the achievements and long service milestones of its employees, IAG has an established range of policies, programs, and practices to respond to the demographic challenge, largely around the need for flexibility that older workers frequently want.

With respect to government initiatives, Wilkins endorsed efforts to reform the superannuation arrangements so as not to discourage people from remaining in or re-entering the workforce, suggested possible subsidies for older workers who want to take on mentoring roles and tax breaks to make it more appealing for older workers to re-enter the workforce, and applauded the Queensland and Western Australian governments for removing the age limit on their workers compensation schemes and recommended that all states and territories do the same.

Source: Insurance Australia Group Media Release (September 3, 2012)

United Kingdom: Illness Forces Many Older Workers To Stop Working Before Retirement Age

The United Kingdom's Trades Union Congress (TUC) has released an analysis of official labor market data showing that disability and poor health are preventing nearly half a million people approaching retirement from working, a figure that the TUC says will only increase as the state pension age starts to rise. Specifically, the TUC research finds that the employment rates for those approaching the current SPA are low, with just 54% of men aged 60-64 and 62% of women aged 56-60 in work.

As nearly two in five of those approaching retirement age are economically inactive, with long-term sickness and disability cited as the main reason for then not working, the TUC argues that the UK government is wrong to raise the state pension age without first addressing the health inequalities that are forcing many people out of work well before they're able to draw their pension. Instead, the government should focus on tackling age discrimination, extending access to flexible working and supporting those who are actively seeking work to re-enter the jobs market. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

While more people are working past their state pension age, often as the only way to get a decent retirement income, a far greater number of older people are unable to work due to ill-health or because they are trapped in long-term unemployment.

Accelerating the rise in the state pension age will simply push more people into poverty. We will end up with a new limbo zone for people in their mid-60s who are too young for a pension, but too old to have any realistic chance of a job. With a benefits system that gets meaner and tougher each year, even 66 year olds who have worked for decades before stopping work will be treated as work-shy scroungers.

By raising the state pension age and ignoring persistent health inequalities, the government risks overseeing a dramatic rise in pensioner poverty.

Source: Trades Union Congress News Release (August 30, 2012)

Research: Eliminating Social Security Taxes on Older Workers Would Encourage Longer Working Lives, Reduce Government Expenses

According to research published by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, eliminating social security payroll taxes starting when workers are 55-years-old would lead to their take-home pay jumping by 10.6%, and they would work 1.5 years longer on average, paying more income taxes, and helping to reduce the Federal deficit. In their article "Consumption, retirement and social security: Evaluating the efficiency of reform that encourages longer careers," in the Journal of Public Economics, University of Michigan economists John Laitner and Dan Silverman explore how tax cuts targeted at older workers would affect the likelihood of working longer and the size of the federal deficit.

According to their abstract, "The estimated magnitude of the change in consumption–expenditure depends importantly on the treatment of consumption by adult children of the household. Simulations indicate that the reform could increase retirement ages one year or more, equivalent variations could average more than $4000 per household, and income tax revenues per household could increase by more than $14,000."

However, in order for the Social Security system to break even,
workers would need to pay about one percent higher payroll taxes a year until age 55. Thus, Laitner said:

Households with a strong preference for very early retirement would pay the slightly higher payroll tax before age 55, but leave the labor force before gaining much from the elimination of the payroll tax after that. Late retirees would, by the same token, be big winners. And the point of the reform, after all, is to encourage work by rewarding it.

Source: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan Research Release (August 28, 2012)

Survey: U.S. Employers Want Older Workers To Keep Working

Nearly half of 412 retirement plans sponsors surveyed by BMO Retirement Services expect U.S. companies to benefit from baby boomer employees who prolong their careers past age 65. In addition, only 4% of the firms surveyed believe employees who postpone retirement will be a negative for companies.

"Although some companies will continue to offer buyouts and retirement packages to their older staff, our survey suggests that many businesses will be pleased to retain selected boomer employees," said Todd Perala, Director of Relationship Management at BMO Retirement Services. "There appears to be a growing recognition in corporate America that employees in their sixties possess valuable institutional experience and expertise."

BMO Retirement Services also found that close to a quarter of surveyed employers estimate that the percentage of working boomers who postpone retirement could exceed 50% in the years ahead. Nearly half of respondents predict that more than 30% of boomers will fall into this category.

The plans surveyed have a minimum of $2 million in trust assets and use the BMO Retirement Services recordkeeping platform.

Source: BMO Retirement Services Press Release (August 21, 2012)

New Zealand: Exploring Employer HR Needs and the Silver Tsunami

According to an article from the University of Auckland's Retirement Policy and Research Centre, the retirement of baby boomers in Nez Zealand will leave labor and skill gaps that will need filling and will change the whole process of retirement, but employers able to harness those two challenges will fare better as the "silver tsunami" moves through New Zealand’s age groups. In "A commentary on older workers and some HR issues facing employers," Michael Littlewood examines what is known about New Zealand's older workers, looks at effective retirement ages, makes international comparisons, and explores some of the myths of the silver tsunami.

Among other things, Littlewood writes that not enough is known bout older New Zealanders, as the five yearly Census was last done in 2006. He points out that, as of that time, participation rate of those aged 65 and over had approximately trebled over the 20 years 1986-2006, and that t there were wice as many male "participants" as female in each of several age groups broken out of those over 65 in 2006.

Baby boomers will change everything as they move through their late careers, the transition to retirement and retirement itself. Their numbers alone make that inevitable. They present a human resources’ challenge to employers on at least two grounds: their retirement will leave labour and skill gaps that will need filling, and they will change the whole process of retirement.

Source: Retirement Policy and Research Centre Pension Commentary 2012-4 (August 13, 2012)

United Kingdom: Survey Finds Many Workers Plan To Never Retire; Others Unsure

A survey conducted by Baring Assest Management finds that 44% of non-retired Great Britain adults aged 55 to 64 do not know when they will be able to retire--a higher percentage than the 38% of all non-retired adults who don't know when they will be able to retire. In addition, 12% of the larger pool do not plan to retire at all.

According to Barings, "the results of this year’s survey are in stark contrast to the results from before the financial crisis in 2008. Back then, 100% of non-retired respondents were confident that they would retire, with only 1% saying that they did not know at what age they
would be able to do so."

The survey also finds that of those that plan to retire over the age of 65, 65% are men and 35% are women, suggesting that proportionally men are likely to retire later.

Marino Valensise, Chief Investment Officer at Baring Asset Management commented:

Particularly concerning is the fact that such a huge proportion of people aged 55 – 64 do not know when they will be able to retire. It is likely that these people will have suffered pension losses in recent years due to the financial crisis and therefore need to work longer to recoup funds. With a high number of younger people also failing to save, it is essential that the benefits of a pension are understood to avoid further generations of pension poverty. While financial demands extend beyond saving for retirement, starting to build a pension early in your working life is absolutely key to ensuring a comfortable retirement.

Source: Baring Assest Management Press Release (August 16, 2012)

Study: Labor Force Participation and Increased Participation by Older Workers

The Urban Institute has released a report suggesting that changing age demographics have powerful implications for the shape of the nation's work force, but that "formal models of labor force participation fail to take into account that as the relative supply of younger workers declines, employers will increasingly turn to older workers to meet their demand for labor to provide goods and services." According to "Correcting Labor Supply Projections for Older Workers Could Help Social Security and Economic Reform," by C. Eugene Steuerle and Caleb Quakenbush, increased labor force participation among older workers can add to the solvency of Social Security and the broader federal budget. Policymakers in both the public and private sectors can accommodate this trend by removing barriers that discourage hiring and retaining older workers.

Older workers are to the first half of the 21st century what women were to the last half of the 20th: the largest underused source of labor and human capital in the economy. Few policymakers are taking this extraordinary possibility into account in their reform packages. In an increasingly informationand service-based economy, older workers represent a valuable source of knowledge and experience that employers will tap, especially if Social Security and related economic reforms attempt to channel rather than obstruct these forces.

Source: Urban Institute Publication News (August 10, 2012)

United Kingdom: Action Needed To Improve Older Workers Employment Gap

The Resolution Foundation has issued a report suggesting that the United Kingdom may be missing a historic opportunity to boost employment among the over 50s. The UK ranks 15th out of 34 OECD countries, for older workers, lagging the five top countries for by over fifteen percentage points, and closing this gap would mean around 1.5 million more people in work. According to "Unfinished Business: Barriers and opportunities for older workers," authored by Giselle Cory, planned increases in the state pension age are a step in the right direction, but without parallel reforms to tackle the other barriers to older employment, the change will hinder rather than help some older women who are unable to find or keep employment.

In particular, the report identifies six key barriers which need to be overcome to support greater employment amongst the over 50s:

1. lack of adequate financial incentives to remain in, or return to, work;
2. significant caring responsibilities;
3. lack of employment support to move back into work, including training;
4. limited access to flexible working opportunities
5. continued prevalent age discrimination; and
6. poor health.

The UK should attack these because there is a strong desire for longer working lives and a strong need, particularly for those on low to middle incomes. Among other things, most pension saving takes place after age 50 and only one in four is currently saving enough to retire at state pension age; two out of three older workers say they want to continue working up to or past pensionable age; and older women face particular barriers to work, with only 60% of older women employed versus 72% of older men and a large gender pay gap.

Source: Resolution Foundation Press Release (August 8, 2012)

United Kingdom: Official Endorses Mid-life Career Planning To Help Working Longer

During a parliamentary debate, John Hayes, UK Minister for Skills, endorsed proposals made by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) for a mid-life career review. "NIACE has been exploring with the Departments of Business, Innovation and Skills; Work and Pensions and Health whether such a review might encourage people to stay longer and more productively in work, and ensure that they retire in circumstances and ways which make them healthy and independent in retirement." Hayes said:

"...I wanted to accept NIACE's proposal of a mid-life learning health check so that we could look at people at the age of 40 and 50 perhaps and use the national careers service to gauge when and where they could study to upskill or reskill. That there is a need for that has been argued in the sector for some time, and we have taken it on board...".

According to NIACE, the idea of the proposal is to encourage and support people to review the learning and skills they need to successfully manage the second half of their lives. "[T]here is a need for adults to review their career aspirations, training, health, finances and retirement plans before age-discrimination and ill health begin to limit choices."

NIACE also points to "Next steps: Life transitions and retirement in the 21st century," a report prepared by Lord Wei and written by Dr. Alison Hulme for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, as support for this approach.

Source: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education News Archive (July 18, 2012)

Israel: Research Finds that Professional "Vitality" Peaks at Ages 50 to 59

According to the results of research announced by the University of Haifa, managers demonstrate their highest levels of professional vitality in their 50's. In an investigation of the functionality of high-tech, engineering, and infrastructure executives, Dr. Shmuel Grimland, Prof. Yehuda Baruch, and Prof. Eran Vigoda-Gadot, found that in terms of vitality--defined as " the ability to carry out tasks with passion, vigor, and competence, and to gain satisfaction from his or her work performance", advancing age plays a significant role.

Specifically, the older the manager, the higher his or her professional vitality, reaching a peak at 50-59 and 57 being the highest point in the sample group. Then, the manager’s vitality then begins to drop.

"Our study shows that providing tools for workers to improve their professional vitality will also improve their satisfaction and will help cultivate resourceful and innovative workers. This indicates that an organization should make it a priority to provide such tools. Workers’ vitality ‘fuels’ the success of the organization, and the fact that professional vitality is preserved and actually rises well into one’s 50s indicates that organizations investing in this aspect of the workplace will be able to benefit from productive workers for many years," the researchers concluded.

Source: University of Haifa Press Release (July 15, 2012)

Singapore: Government To Focus on Career Development, not Job Placement Agency, To Help Older Workers

Responding to a question at Parliament, Tan Chuan-Jin, Singapore's Minister of State for National Development and Manpower, stated that the government recognizes that older workers often have special requirements and needs, but that a Job Development, Assessment and Placement Service for older workers is not needed. Rather, the government believes in adopting a functional approach and ensuring that existing service touchpoints are sensitive to the needs and requirements of older workers too.

Thus, the government's aid is "to attract and develop career consultants to have the right experience and personal qualities to assist a wide range of job seekers. The career consultants adopt a case management approach to help each client based on their individual needs. They carry out an in-depth assessment of each client’s capabilities and circumstances, before deciding how best to match job seekers to jobs or whether they need more training to become job ready."

While the Government will provide quality training and employment facilitation services for older workers, our efforts will have limited effect if conditions at the workplace are not conducive for older workers. Hence, we have and will continue to encourage employers to adopt age management practices in their workplaces, such as redesigning work processes to suit the physical abilities and skills of an ageing workforce. This will enable employers to be attractive to older workers in this tight labour market.

Sources: Parliament Questions Oral Answer by Mr Tan Chuan-Jin (July 10, 2012); Today Online "Govt open to set up task force to create more jobs for elderly" (July 10, 2012)

United Kingdom: Employers Failing at Supporting Older Workers at Retirement

According to a report prepared for Aviva, almost two-thirds of United Kingdom employers offer no tailored retirement support to their older workers. The "Aviva Real Retirement Report" finds that 64% of businesses don’t offer any tailored retirement support, even though 70% of employees who received support found it useful. In addition, the report finds that the number of employees deferring their state pension continues to increase.

Aviva notes that 56% of employers have spent money on providing work place benefits such as pensions, private medical insurance, and annual bonus, but that only 36% provide employees with guidance in the run-up to retirement:

This lack of guidance not only highlights a lack of commitment to employee benefits but is also likely to lead to a loss of vital skills from older employees. Almost a third (32%)* of those who qualify for the state pension are still looking to work – at least on a part-time basis – so by engaging with an employee’s retirement planning a business may be able to keep their valuable employees for longer.

Interestingly, the main focus if the 36% of employers who recognise the benefits of providing support to older employees is on enabling them to remain working for longer if they choose. "One in ten companies say they offer workers the option of part-time or flexi-time employment as they approach retirement, and 9% look at ways to extend the careers of their employees if this is what they wish to do."

Source: Aviva News Release (July 11, 2012)

China: Official Proposes Pushing Retirement Age to 65 by 2045

He Ping, director of the Social Security Research Institute under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS), has proposed that China should gradually push back the retirement age for both men and women to 65 by 2045. Announcing his proposal at a workshop on coping with the aging population, he said that the changes should begin in 2016 by adding one year every two years over a period of ten years.

In China, the retirement age is currently 60 for men, 55 for female civil servants and 50 for other female workers. Li Jun, an expert with the Institute of Quantitative & Technical Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), also recommended a timely increase in the retirement age. He expressed that this aim is not to promote growth but to reduce the speed of the shrinking of the overall labor force size, to weaken the anticipated increase in costs to the labor force. But he pointed out that the age of retirement is extremely important, and must be treated cautiously in policy making.

Cai Fang, director of the CASS Institute of Population and Labor Economics, argued that China can gradually push back its retirement age in response to the dramatic decline in working age population. However, Cai did indicate that the circumstances for China to extend its retirement age are yet to mature since the country's older generation usually lacks the sufficient educational background to meet the new requirements of their job positions. Therefore, it would be better for the government to adopt a flexible policy in this regard and, at the same time, provide more training opportunities for the elderly.

Sources: Morning Whistle "China should push retirement age to 65 as aging problems grow, official says" (July 2, 2012); China.org "Proposal to push retirement age to 65" (July 2, 2012); ChinaSmack "Experts Propose Increasing China’s Reitrement Age to 65" (July 2, 2012)

Massachusetts: Aging Workforce and Skills Gaps in Metros South/West Region

The first in a series of skills gap reports prepared as a joint project by Commonwealth Corporation and the New England Public Policy Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has been released. According to "Labor Market Trends in the Metro South/West Region," the Metro South/West Region--which includes major workforce centers like Marlborough, Framingham, Natick, Franklin and Hopkinton--faces the demographic challenges of an aging population and potential shortfalls in workers with the required educational levels.

The area is one of the oldest regions in the state; in 2008-10, nearly 50% of the region’s civilian labor force was 45 years of age or older, suggesting that the region’s businesses are facing a potential overall shortage of younger workers to replace baby boomers as they retire.

In the past decade, there has been strong growth in the share of workers who are 45-54 years old and 55-64 years old. In addition, there have been an increasing number of workers who are 65 years and older and in the labor force. At the same time, there has been a declining number of workers between the ages of 25 and 34 and between 35 and 44.

With respect to unemployment, the report notes:

A larger share of the unemployed in Metro South/West is over the age of 45, compared with Massachusetts and the nation. This is a consequence of the region’s older population. At the beginning of the decade, when the unemployment rate was at 2.1 percent, the unemployed population was largely concentrated among 25-54-year-olds. As the region’s population increased in age over the decade and the Great Recession took hold, the share of the unemployed age 45 or older grew to over 50 percent.

Source: New England Public Policy Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Executive Summary (June 26, 2012)

Older Americans Support Legislation To Fight Age Discrimination in Workplace

The AARP has released a survey finding that 78% of registered voters over 50 support passage of the bipartisan "Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act,: which is aimed at is overturning the U.S. Supreme Court decision (Gross v. FBL Financial Services) that made it much more difficult for older workers to prove claims of illegal bias based on age. Furthermore, according to "Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act: National Public Opinion Report," over one-third (34%) reported that they or someone they know has experienced age discrimination in the workplace.

On questions related to the proposed legislation, 90% said that competent workers should be able to stay on the job regardless of their age, and 91% agree that older Americans should be protected from age discrimination just as they are protected from other forms of discrimination. In addition, 64% think that people over age 50 face age discrimination in the workplace.

AARP has also published survey segments of the opinion of older voters in Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Tennessee.

Source: AARP Press Release (June 21, 2012)

South Korea: Will Have World's Highest Average Age by 2045

A report prepared by the Korea Center for International Finance (KCIF), based on findings by the Royal Bank of Scotland, shows that South Korea's population is expected to be the oldest in the world in 2045. In that year, the average age of the country's population will hit 50. In addition, the report shows that the total number of workers in the country is expected to fall by 1.2% every year until 2025, with the figures rising to 2% up until 2050.

In addition, the old age dependency ratio is predicted to steadily rise in the coming years until people over 65, who are no longer economically active, will outnumber workers in 2039. It said in 2050, every worker in the country will have to support 1.65 people who no longer earn a living.

According to an interview with Youngsun Koh, Chief Economist Korea Development Institute, it will be critical for the government to lay out policies that involve more senior citizens and women in the workforce to prevent Korea's aging population from hindering the country's growth.

Sources: Yonhap News Agency"S. Korea's average age to be highest in the world in 2045: report" (June 19, 2012); Airang "Report: Korean Workforce to Be World's Oldest by 2045" (June 19, 2012)

United Kingdom: Report Urges Removing Barriers for 50 Plus Employment

The Policy Exchange has issued a report calling on the United Kingdom to confront the barriers to employment faced by those 50 and older and stating that a failure to provide support based on targeting the barriers to work of the most needy means that many will miss out on the support that they require. According to "Too Much to Lose: Understanding and supporting Britain’s older workers," written by Matthew Tinsley, "without reforms to address these issues, growth in the UK economy will be lower than it might otherwise be and, on average, the population of over-50s could see a fall in living standards."

While the report recognizes that significant progress has been made over the last two decades, with the older workforce becoming more educated, working in more skilled roles and less likely to be affected by health problems, those over-50s currently unemployed are much less likely than any other age group to find work in the next year. Research behind the report finds "that there is a significant scarring effect of unemployment on future wages for older workers and that this is larger than for other age group."

The report says that further regulation is unlikely to help, but that better back-to-work support is needed. Specifically, it recommends:

1. As a part of the current consultation, the government should look into legislating for a system of protected conversations between employers and employees. This must allow conversations around both retirement and the opportunities for flexible working and provide a platform for employers to get an understanding of the plans of their older workers regarding when they plan to retire and discuss possible flexible working arrangements.
2. Government pilots allowing more advisor flexibility for older workers across all Jobcentres should be extended where there has been success so far.
3. The government should pilot a scheme where more skilled older workers can take a budget for the support that they receive and use it to find support in areas that suit their specific needs.
4. For the potentially large number of older jobseekers whose experience is in sectors that currently lack good prospects there should be the condition to search and/or gain experience in other sectors as part of their mandatory job search activities.
5. Through Jobcentre Plus there should be a greater push to allow volunteering and work experience on a voluntary basis to older jobseekers who JCP advisors believe can benefit the most from it.
6. For the minority of older jobseekers that advisors believe are not making a serious attempt to look in different sectors or roles, a mandatory element should be introduced into the scheme. Such claimants would be given the option of undertaking either a Mandatory Work Activity
   placement, or engaging in the work experience scheme.

Source: Conservative Home "Matthew Tinsley: Helping older workers" (June 19, 2012)

OECD Pension Outlook: Work Longer Before Retiring and Smaller Public Pensions.

The OECD says that governments will need to raise retirement ages gradually to address increasing life expectancy in order to ensure that their national pension systems are both affordable and adequate. Even so, the OECD report "Pensions Outlook 2012" finds that reforms over the past decade have cut future public pension payouts, typically by 20 to 25%.

According to the OECD, over the next 50 years, life expectancy at birth is expected to increase by more than 7 years in developed economies. The long-term retirement age in half of OECD countries will be 65, and in 14 countries it will be between 67 and 69. The report states that increases in retirement ages are underway or planned in 28 out of the 34 OECD countries, but these increases will only keep pace with improved life expectancy in six countries for men and in 10 countries for women. Thus, OECD calls on governments to consider formally linking retirement ages to life expectancy, as in Denmark and Italy, and make greater efforts to promote private pensions.

Private pensions are not a panacea either, as OECD notes that in countries where public pensions are relatively low and private pensions voluntary, such as Germany, Ireland, Korea, Japan and the United States, large segments of the population can expect major falls in income upon retirement.

The report also includes the first comprehensive evaluation of national defined contribution systems. These are:

now a central feature of many countries’ pension systems. Among other recommendations, the report argues that it is critical to set the minimum or default contribution rate in Defined Contribution systems at an appropriate level.

Contributions to these systems need to be high enough so that together with public pensions they generate sufficient income at retirement. While Australia is moving in the right direction by increasing its contribution rate from 9% to 12%, it remains too low in countries such as Mexico and New Zealand (6.5% and 3%, respectively).

Source: OECD News Release (June 11, 2012). See also, OECD, Media Brief.

Australia: Economic Reform Report Calls for Raising Participation Rates of Older Workers

The Grattan Institute, in issuing reform recommendations for providing Australia economic benefits over the next decade, noted that no other reform opportunity compared to tax reform and raising participation rates for women and older Australians. With respect to the latter, the report — "Game-changers: Economic reform priorities for Australia" — said that "Increasing the workforce participation rate of older people would mean that Australia’s GDP would be about $25 billion higher by 2022."

Finding that "[o]lder people generally stop working for discretionary reasons, such as opting to retire once they reach ‘retirement age’, rather than because of difficulty finding work, or barriers such as disability," the Grattan Institute calls for increasing the ages at which people become eligible for the aged pension and eligible to access their superannuation. Specifically, the report recommends raising both the pension age (the age at which people can qualify for the age pension — currently 65 for men and 64 for women, to rise to 65 for both sexes by 2014) and the preservation age (the age at which a worker can access their superannuation — currently 55) to 70.

According to the report, "[m]easures to encourage businesses to employ older workers, such as the Commonwealth Government’s recently announced Jobs Bonus and related initiatives, are likely to have a relatively limited effect on older age participation." In fact, it suggests that "it is not clear that governments can do much to alter employer perceptions. It may be that increasing the pension and preservation ages would do more than anything else to change both employer and employee expectations."

Those retiring today have benefited from an ‘unexpected’ increase in longevity, and it is reasonable that in enjoying this benefit, they share some of the costs that it imposes. The only generation that is ‘unfairly’ treated by increases in the pension age is the cohort that has already retired. Younger people will have to work to any increased retirement age as well.

Source: Grattan Institute Media Release (June 7, 2012)

Australian Human Rights Commission Calls for Ending Barriers to Working Past the 60's

The Australian Human Rights Commission has issued a paper detailing how age bars in workers compensation, income insurance, and licencing block willing and able people from continuing in work through their 60s and beyond. In "Working Past Our 60s: Reforming Laws and Policies for the Older Worker," calls for the elimination of all these age bars. Susan Ryan, the Age Commissioner, states: "My hope, in publishing this paper, is to spread awareness of these forms of age discrimination and thus encourage decision makers to devise and implement positive reforms."

According to the paper, the "structural barriers not only create financial and security difficulties for people who work into their 60s and beyond, they also send a message to older workers that they should not be in the workforce." Specifically, the Commission argues that:

• "[e]xtending workers compensation, income protection and superannuation provisions to all people who remain productive in the workforce will go some way towards ensuring that older Australians enjoy the same rights as the rest of the working population." and
  
• "[e]nsuring that the licensing and regulatory requirements do not discriminate on the basis of age will also provide opportunities for people to work for as long as they are fit and productive."

Source: Australian Human Rights Commission News Release (June 6, 2012)

Eurofound Seminars Focus on Working Conditions for Older Workers

Eurofound held its 8th edition of the Foundation Seminar Series (FSS) in Rome in late May. Among the issues on the agenda were working conditions of older workers; national, regional and sectoral initiatives for active ageing; and best practice in companies.

Following are links to the presentations:

Programme:

• Final programme [.pdf, 206kb]

Presentations:

DAY 1 - Monday 28 May 2012

• Maurizio Curtarelli & Oscar Vargas - Working conditions of older workers in Europe: Highlights [.pdf, 1.7mb]
• Marco Centra & Pietro Checcucci - Demographic trends, older workers and active ageing in Italy [.pdf, 500kb]
• Roberto Angotti - Learning, supporting active ageing. Evidence from Eurostat and Isfol - INDACO surveys [.pdf, 534kb]
• Country profile: Italy [.pdf, 536kb]
• Mario Zambelli - Company case Politecnico Calzaturiero 'Flexibly beyond' [.pdf, 805kb]
• Mario Zambelli - Company profile Politecnico Calzaturiero [.pdf, 1.1mb]

DAY 2 - Tuesday 29 May 2012

• Country profiles: Austria [.pdf, 300kb], Belgium [.pdf, 100kb],Slovenia [.pdf, 832kb], Portugal [.pdf, 833kb], Estonia [.pdf, 636kb],Finland [.pdf, 210kb], Ireland [.pdf, 170kb], Romania [.pdf, 508kb],Hungary [.pdf, 424kb], Latvia [.pdf, 1.4mb], Luxembourg [.pdf, 362kb], Serbia [.pdf, 655kb]
• Gabriella Bettiol - Industrial change, retirement reform, innovative business: impact on active ageing management [.pdf, 1.2mb]
• Riccardo Viaggi - The under construction 3 project: A European sectorial social dialogue approach to active ageing [.pdf, 422kb]
• Wilma Butterworth & Pamela Houghton - Positive about older workers [.pdf, 730kb]
• Carmel Schuler - Productive ageing [.pdf, 723kb]
• Bridie Horan - 'Options for me programme': promoting equal opportunities for older workers at Tallaght hospital [.pdf, 484kb]
• Dieter Doetsch - Training 50+ with ING-DiBa [.pdf, 880kb]
• Serena Zottino - Skills development in high-level older employees [.pdf, 378kb]

DAY 3 - Wednesday 30 May 2012

• Anne-Marie Guillemard - Developing solidarity and cooperation amongst the various age groups in the workplace for an active and productive ageing workforce [.pdf, 723kb]

Source: Eurofound (June 5, 2012)

Connecticut: Report Suggests Aging Workforce Harming Economic Recovery

According to a report from the Connecticut Center of Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut, the state is recovering from the recession, "but without the robustness needed to restore reasonably full employment and household income." Furthermore, "Connecticut faces a dismal future, with its 65 and over population doubling, its working age population shrinking while its quality deteriorates, and its under‐18 cohort contracts." However, according to "Recovery Stirring? But will Connecticut be too Old to Compete? The Connecticut Economic Outlook: May 2012," the state has "one asset that could vault it to the top of the growth charts and, critically, rescue it from its current bleak demographic trajectory."

According to the report's authors, the challenge for Connecticut is to replace all 120,000 jobs lost since 2008 and to create substantially more--at least 50,000 net net--to retain and attract new workers, to change its demographic future. To do this, they recommend that the state "unleash existing stranded tax credits in a highly targeted program to drive economic growth.  If the $2.5 billion in tax credits currently sitting unused and unusable on balance sheets could be redeemed ex post against the cost of major capital projects."

Given current labor force patterns and participation rates, with an aggressive expansion policy, Connecticut could effectively compete both to retain its own educated youth and to pull in thousands of new workers, significantly exceeding its previous employment level.  In the longer term, together with the initiatives in place, aggressive use of the stranded tax credits would launch Connecticut on a long‐term dynamic path that would continue expanding employment opportunities for two or more decades.

Source: The CT Mirror "Report: Aging workforce threatens state's economic recovery" (May 23, 2012)

Switzerland: Companies Begin To Look to Older Workers To Fill Skills Gap

A survey conducted by Monster.ch reports that 75% of Swiss companies say they see recruitement of people over age 50 as a solution to the shortage of qualified workers. However, only 37% of them are actually regularly hiring people over age 50, and 34% say they do not want to keep people on as salaried employees once they reach age 65.

"2012 Switzerland Recruiting Trends" („Recruiting Trends 2012 Schweiz“) documents the important trends and challenges of recruitment in Switzerland and contains estimates of the economic development of the labor market, and finds that the shortage of skilled labor remains a central problem of recruitment in Switzerland. Nine out of ten employers say that the age of their employees does not really matter, and that what is important is the true performance of employees. In addition, 86.3% want to keep their employees as long as possible in the company.

Sources: Monster.ch Press Release (May 23, 2012); Genevalunch.com "Message to older workers: we love you, we want you but not just yet" (May 23, 2012)

West Virginia: Demographer Reports Decline in Working Age Population

According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau and evaluated by the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER), the number of working-age people is on the decline in West Virginia. In addition, the overall number of the working-age population ages 18-64 decreased by 0.03% between July 1, 2010, and July 1, 2011.

BBER demongrapher Dr. Christiadi stated that "The year of 2011 may be the start of the new trend where the number of state’s working-age population gradually shrinks over time." The prime working-age population (people ages 25-44) saw the largest drop of 0.6%, and this trend took place in 48 of 55 counties (87.3%), with 13 counties (23.6%) declining more than 2%.

"When it comes to people getting or changing jobs, the state still sees more people moving out rather than moving in. In addition, West Virginia has more and more out-of-state college students, which partly explains why we see more college graduates moving out of the state," Christiadi said.

Source: West Virginia University Press Release (May 18, 2012)

Thailand: Aging of Workforce in Industrial Sector

According to an article in the English language "The Nation," Thaiand's industrial sector's labour force is aging, adversely affecting productivity. Research conducted by Srawooth Paitoonpong at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) has found changes in the workforce's age, gender and educational make-up between 1991 and 2010. While the industrial-sector labour force has been younger than those in the agricultural and service sectors, Srawooth reports that the number of young workers had plunged from 55% to nearly 21% during that period, while the number of older workers rose to 20% from 12%.

The causes are the Kingdom's lower birth rate and the trend for young people to spend more years in educational institutions.

"The average age of a labourer was 32 in 2010, up from 27 in 2004," said Srawooth.

"The rising proportion of ageing workers has had a negative impact on labour productivity, so training is needed to improve older workers' productivity," he suggested.

Source: The Nation "Ageing workforce hits industrial-sector productivity, says TDRI report" (May 21, 2012)

GAO Issues Report on Status of Unemployed Older Workers in the United States

The U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report focusing on the status of unemployed older workers coming out of the recession. As a report to the Senate Special Committee on the Aging, the GAO's "Unemployed Older Workers: Many Experience Challenges Regaining Employment and Face Reduced Retirement Security" examines:

1. how older workers’ employment status has changed since the recession,
2. what risks unemployed older workers face and what challenges they experience in finding reemployment,
3. how long-term unemployment could affect older workers’ retirement income, and
4. what other policies might help them return to work and what steps the Department of Labor (Labor) has taken to help unemployed older workers.

The GAO concluded that "Although long-term unemployment hurts job seekers of all ages, it poses some greater challenges for older workers." Among other things, "older workers tend to stay unemployed longer, and those who regain employment generally sustain greater wage losses than do younger workers."

Without providing specifics, GAO recommended that, to foster the employment of older workers, the Secretary of Labor should consider what strategies are needed to address the unique needs of older job seekers, in light of recent economic and technological changes.

Labor agreed with our recommendation and noted a couple of its initiatives focused on the employment of older workers. Specifically, Labor cited its current evaluation of the Aging Worker Initiative demonstration project, which will assess the success of new interventions used by 10 local grantees to help connect aging workers with employment opportunities. In addition, Labor cited its sponsorship of the annual National Employ Older Workers Week that provides outreach opportunities for SCSEP grantees.

For an audio interview by GAO staff with Charles Jeszeck, Director, Education, Workforce & Income Security, go to GAO website.

Source: U.S. General Accountability Office Highlights (May 15, 2012)

United Kingdom: Survey Shows Retirees Would Prefer Gradual Retirement

A survey of people planning to retire this year in the United Kingdom shows that 40% of them would be happy to work past 65 if they had the chance. According to the Prudential Class of 2012 study, 48% of men and 32% of women would be happy to continue working past the standard retirement age.

Prudential reports that the main motivation for 68% of the retirees who want to stay in the workforce past 65 is a desire to remain physically healthy and mentally active, while 39% do not like the idea of retiring and just staying at home. Despite wanting to stay in work, only 13% would choose to continue to work full-time with their current employer. Rather 49% of them would prefer to work part-time, either with their current employer or in a new role, in order to strike a better work life balance.

Vince Smith-Hughes, retirement expert at Prudential, said:

Gradual retirement is an increasing trend among pensioners, whether this means remaining in the same job on a flexible basis or even setting up their own business! Those retiring at 65 will face an average of nineteen years in retirement which makes the financial and social benefits of working for longer an even bigger draw for a new generation of industrious retirees.”

Source: Prudential Assurance Co. Press Release (May 2, 2012)

United Kingdom: Cambridge Academics Approve Age 67 Mandatory Retirement

Cambridge University has introduced a compulsory retirement age of 67 for its academics to promote "intergenerational fairness" and enable career progression, according to press reports. Cambridge conducted the vote in response to the United Kingdom's abolition of the default retirement age, but it applies only to academic employees.

In voting for an "employer justified retirement age" (EJRA), the academics have decided that, upon reaching 67, they must either take their pension or reapply to stay at the University. Claire Churchard, writing in People Management, quotes Indi Seehra, HR director at the university as saying:

Introducing the EJRA for academics will support intergenerational fairness. It will allow our academics to progress through the promotional stages in the course of their career and help to create a balanced distribution of ages.

...

In an environment where innovation is needed, you need new people to come in to the cohort to create innovation. But you need the capacity to allow them in, and if you haven’t got people leaving then that will be a restriction on the capacity for new people.

Sources: People Management "Cambridge academics approve compulsory retirement age" (May 3, 2012); The Cambridge Student "Analysis: Should Cambridge dons be made to retire at 67?" (April 26, 2012)

New Hampshire: Aging Demographics a Cause for Concern

The Carsey Institute of the University of New Hampshire has issued a demographic report that while New Hampshire does not have a large population of seniors, a rapid increase in the older population is inevitable and coming soon. Among other things, in "New Hampshire Demographic Trends in the Twenty-First Century," the author, Kenneth M. Johnson, the Institute's senior demographer, argues that while New Hampshire’s large population of working-aged adults has provided much of the human capital the state needs to fuel continued economic growth, the lack of significant growth in these age groups is a cause for some concern.

New Hampshire’s age structure dictates that the number of older adults will increase rapidly in the next two decades. There are currently 97,000 65- to 74-year-olds in New Hampshire. In contrast, there are 179,000 55- to 64-year-olds and 226,000 45- to 54-year-olds.

New Hampshire's economy had been fueled by in-migration, but "the loss of migrants has an immediate financial impact on the state and implications for its human, intellectual, and social capital." During the recession, in fact, out-migration has resulted in New Hampshire experiencing a 10.6% net loss of the 20- to 29-year-olds coveted by employers. Thus, Johnson argues, "[a\ggressive programs exemplified by the 'Stay, Work, Play Initiative' should be considered to retain young adults, encourage those who left to return, and attract more young adults to the state."

Source: The Carsey Institute Publication Abstract (May 1, 2012)

Norway: State Employee Unions Seeking More Time Off for Senior Workers

According to press reports, labor unions representing state workers are demanding 12 extra days off every year, plus even more for senior workers over age 62, in order to make it easier for the employees to take care of aging parents, for example, and to discourage older workers from retiring. In particular, "[o]ne of the unions, Akademikerne, also wants workers over age 62 to receive 28 additional days off, in addition to the 30 days of paid holiday they get every year. That means senior employees would effectively get three months off every year."

As reported by Newspaper VG, Rikke Ringsrød, the union's chief negotiator in the state, since the government is trying to get more people to remain longer in work and senior political holidays (currently, all state employees over 62 years receive eight holidays a year, plus up to 6 days as may be agreed with the local employer) have proven to be useful, the union proposal is to provide flexible arrangements that each individual can choose between reduced fractional positions or other arrangements to choose to be in the job. He further suggests that these are employees who are of great benefit to employers, and that it is better that they are nine months on the job than they disappear from the workplace.

VG says that Government Ministers Rigmor Aasrud, responsible in government for wage, would not comment on the union proposals.

Source: Views and News from Norway "State workers want more time off" (May 2, 2012)

Australia: Commission Opens Broad Inquiry into Legal Barriers to Labor Force Participation by Older Workers

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has released an Issues Paper for its Inquiry into legal barriers to mature age participation in the workforce and other productive work. According to the ALRC, "Grey Areas: Age Barriers to Work in Commonwealth Laws" is intended to form a basis for consultation--to encourage informed community participation by providing background information and highlighting the issues so far identified by the ALRC.

ALRC President Professor Rosalind Croucher said “There is often a complex interaction between things that are ‘barriers’ to workforce participation and things that are ‘incentives’ to leave the workforce. Leaving the paid workforce may also mean people are able to make a valuable contribution in other productive work—like the hugely important role of volunteers in our community.

The ALRC considers that six interlinking principles should guide reform in this area: participation; independence; self-agency; system stability; system coherence; and fairness. One key question we are asking in the Issues Paper is whether there are any other principles that should inform our deliberations. Other questions refer to changes that should be made to remove barriers in the various areas of law under review.”

In addition to this initial "framing" question, ALRC seeks responses to 54 other questions on age pension, income tax, superannuation, social security, family assistance, child support, employment, workers’ compensation and insurance, and migration. Among the employment questions that it raises are:

34. In what ways, if any, can the practices of private recruitment agencies be regulated to remove barriers to mature age employees entering or re-entering the workforce?

38. How does the operation of the modern award system affect mature age employees and in what ways, if any, can modern awards be utilised or amended to account for the needs of mature age employees?

41. Where is it best to include information about occupational health and safety issues relevant to mature age workers?

43. What measures involving regulation and monitoring, if any, should be introduced to ensure (a) employers are responsive to the needs of mature age employees; and (b) mature age employees are actively involved in developing and implementing such measures?

44. What are some examples of employment management best practice aimed at attracting or retaining mature age employees?

46. What other changes, if any, should be made to the employment law framework to remove barriers to mature age participation in the workforce or other productive work?

ALRC has provided an online form to make submissions on its inquiry.

Source: Australian Law Reform Commission Media Release (May 1, 2012)

United Kingdom: Study Outlines Financial Pressures Keeping Workers Employed after Pension Age

The Pensions Policy Institute has released a study finding that around a half of the United Kingdom's current over 50s will have to save more and work longer if they want an adequate income in retirement. Due to the dramatic increases in life expectancy, the vast majority of the over 50s who are working (around 85%) might have sufficient state and private pension income to meet a minimum acceptable standard of living in retirement if they continue to work and save until they are eligible to receive their state pension, but for many people an income in retirement at this level is unlikely to be considered adequate.

According to "Retirement income and assets: the implications for retirement income of Government policies to extend working lives," around 40% of today’s over 50s who are still working might have sufficient state and private pension income to have a retirement income that would allow them to replicate their full living standards in retirement, and a further 10% of the over 50s might have such sufficient pension income if they continue to work and save for between one and five years after their state pension age. However, 5% of today’s over 50s might have to work and save for between six and ten years after that age and a further 45% would have to work and save for 11 years or more to replicate their working life living standards in retirement.

The report also notes, however, that while the proportions of people working at older ages has increased, many people are compelled to leave work before state pension age due to circumstances beyond their control, such as health problems or the need to provide care for a family member. On the other hand, the report also notes that people in the highest wealth quintile are more than twice as likely to retire voluntarily before reaching their state pension age, than people in the middle wealth quintile, and that those with a Defined Benefit pension are almost twice as likely to retire voluntarily before their state pension age than those with no private pension income.

Sources: Pensions Policy Institute News Release (April 25, 2012); The Independent "Half of over-50s will be forced to work until age 77" (April 28, 2012)

Gallup Poll: Expected Retirement Age in United States Rises to 67

According to a Gallup poll, the average non-retired American now expects to retire at age 67, up from age 63 a decade ago and age 60 in the mid-1990s. Overall, 26% of non-retirees expect to retire before age 65, with 27% expecting to retire at age 65 and 39% after age 65. The percentage that expect to retire after age 65 is up from 21% in 2002 and 12% in 1995.

Gallup also reports it finds a steady, although less steep, increase in the average age at which retirees actually retired, from age 57 in 1991 to age 60 in 2012. The average retirement age first reached 60 in 2004 and has generally held there since. However, Gallup expects that the average should increase in future years if current non-retirees delay their retirement, as they report in the survey.

Gallup also surveyed how well off workers expect to be in retirement:

Younger nonretirees are also more optimistic than those closer to retirement age about their post-retirement financial situation. Slightly more nonretirees under age 40 believe they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement (48%) than believe they will not (44%). By comparison, nonretirees aged 40 and older are more than twice as likely to think they will not have a comfortable retirement (64%) than to think they will (29%).

Source: Gallup Inc. News Release (April 27, 2012)

Germany: Chancellor Merkel Addresses Demographics of Aging, including Workforce

Chancellor Angela Merkel convened and addressed a demographic conference on how Germany needs to respond to its aging population. Among other things, she reenforce the need to to raise the retirement age to 67 "by saying that demographic changes in Germany called for it and added that having more experienced employees would increase companies' productivity," according to a press report.

According to Merkel, "Deshalb bin ich zutiefst davon überzeugt, dass wir Ältere im Erwerbsleben auch wegen ihrer großen Erfahrung wirklich brauchen." She also argues for more flexibility to work into old age and transition into retirement: "Mehr Flexibilität beim Arbeiten im Alter und beim Übergang in den Ruhestand – das ist eine ganz wichtige Sache, die viele auch wollen."

Working is just part of her demographic strategy, which addresses six main points: support for families, putting in place the right conditions for a longer working life, finding ways for older people to choose the way they work, cooperation among federal, state and municipal institutions, securing wealth and growth and limiting state debt. The Cabinet is set to approve this plan.

On the Chancellor's website, there is a copy of her speech to the conference, as well as video of her remarks.


Source: Deutsche Welle "Aging society keeps Germans working" (April 25, 2012)

Survey: Older Middle-Income Workers in U.S. Happy To Keep Working

Charles Schwab & Co. has released a survey finding that 76% of middle-income Americans who are between the ages of 50 and 69 say they are sticking with their jobs because they "want to" as opposed to being "stuck" in them because they can’t leave. In addition, 27% say this is the happiest time of their working career, and another 11% believe the best is yet to come.

In other results from the "2012 Older Workers & Money Survey," 59% of workers aged 50-69 say they like what they’re doing, and 49% like the people they work with. Also, 67% consider themselves ahead of the game when it comes to job skills and report being "intellectually stimulated," "still learning" and "working to [their] full potential" at their jobs.

There are some striking differences between people in their 50s vs. those in their 60s when it comes to overall contentment in the workplace. A significantly higher percentage of 60-somethings than 50-somethings say they don’t plan to stop working (34 percent vs. 25 percent, respectively). In fact, nearly twice as many workers in their 60s as 50s say they just don’t want to retire (32 percent vs. 19 percent). The study shows that people in their 60s are more likely to be working part-time and enjoying the flexibility of doing so, liking the people they work with, feeling they would be bored if they weren’t working, and not feeling ready to retire or simply not wanting to.

Conversely, more 50-somethings than 60-somethings feel “stuck” in their jobs, perceiving greater barriers to making a job change. They say they’re sticking with their current employer because they need the money (64 percent vs. 55 percent) or because they feel it would be tough to switch jobs in this economy (52 percent vs. 29 percent) or because they don’t want to start over and lose seniority (29 percent vs. 17 percent).

The survey polled 1,004 middle-income American workers between the ages of 50 and 69 from January 19 through January 30, 2012, to better understand their perspectives and outlook on working, financial well-being and retirement. Respondents had household incomes between $40,000 and $90,000. Results were also reported on workers and their families, and their financial health. The survey also noted that "Older workers tend to serve as mentors to their younger colleagues, with more than two-thirds of them (68 percent) providing advice on a range of topics, including how their younger colleagues can do their jobs better, how to handle professional issues and how to navigate around the organization."

Source: Charles Schwab & Co. Press Release (April 24, 2012)

Book Review: "Retirement on the Line"

Frank Koller, in reviewing Retirement on the Line: Age, Work, and Value in an American Factory by Caitrin Lynch, says that "Lynch convincingly argues that regardless of age, people 'just want to matter.' With a rapidly aging population, the U.S. has to find ways to better harness the tremendous experience, energy and wisdom of its older citizens."

Lynch's book is the product of five years of research exploring Vita Needle, a small private manufacturing company in suburban Boston, which began to concentrate 20 years ago on hiring workers nearing or over the traditional retirement age of 65 and which now has 49 employees, with an average age of 73 and a few of whom are over 90. Koller says that "Lynch's book, however, asks tough questions about the ethics of Vita's reliance on "eldersourcing" and its relevance to the broader economic challenges facing the nation."

In my writing about the competitive advantages of formal no-layoff policies, this issue comes up repeatedly: why bother with a management system so different from what everyone else uses?

Lynch's answers are similar to mine.

First, Vita's long-term financial success (which the firm argues is directly supported by its hiring of older employees) "suggests that a practice that can be good for business can also be good for workers." It's certainly not about "being nice" to old people.

Second, does any thinking person believe that conventional management systems -- the ones which so quickly shed so many millions of workers in recent years -- are currently working well for the country as a whole?

Source: Huffington Post "Paid Work -- Long Past 65 -- Can Benefit Everyone" (April 20, 2012)

Canada: Older Workers Less Likely To Participate in Job-Related Training

According to a study from Statistics Canada, older workers in 2008 were significantly less likely to participate in job-related training than their counterparts in the core working-age population. In "Job-related training of older
workers" by Jungwee Park, it is reported that, in the year from July 2007 to June 2008, 45% of workers aged 25 to 54 took at least one job-related course or program, compared with 32% of those aged 55 to 64.

Among the factors linked with significantly lower participation in training among older workers were lower annual income, low educational attainment, temporary employment and work in blue-collar or service jobs. Workers in the private sector, particularly those in goods-producing industries, were also less likely to take job-related training.

However, over the period since 1991 when statistics started being kept, the employer-sponsored training gap between older and core-age workers shrank appreciably. Between 1991 and 2008, the participation rate in employer-supported training among workers aged 55 to 64 more than doubled from 12% to 28%, while the training rate for workers in the core-age group, those from 25 to 54, increased from 29% to 38%.

Source: Statistics Canada The Daily (April 20, 2012)

Austria Considers Lowering Working Week To Raise Employment Rates of Older Workers

According to press reports, Austrian SPÖ Labour Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer is in favor of a reduction of the general working hours from 40 to 38.5 per week in order to help keep elderly workers and employees in work longer. In addition, Hundstorfer said that that lowering people’s average working hours could be beneficial to the government’s attempts to increase the average pension age.

Statistics have shown that even though the retirement age for men is 65 in Austria, they are retiring on average at 58.9 years. At the same time, women are retiring on average at age 57.5 years, even though their retirement age is 60. Altogether, Only 42.4% of Austrians aged between 55 and 65 have a job.

The reports are that the SPÖ would create various labor law draft bills and models for the job market of the future. While the Federal Trade Union (ÖGB) announced support for the working week reduction vision, although warning that lowering the working week by 1.5 hours must not mean salary cutbacks, the Economy Chamber (WKO) made clear that it was against a reform.

Sources: Austrian Independent "Hundstorfer ready to reduce working week" (April 18, 2012); FriedlNews "Labor Time: Resistance Against SPÖ´s Plans" (April 17, 2012)

United Kingdom: Study Finds Older Women Doing the Best in Recessionary Job Market

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has released a work audit report finding that older women have fared best as a group in the recession job market in the United Kingdom. The report--"Age, gender and the jobs recession"--states that women aged 50-64, and men and women aged 65 and over, are the only age groups to have registered an increase in both the number in work and employment rates since the start of the jobs recession and have also registered the smallest increases in unemployment.

Specifically, there are 271,000 (8%) more women aged 50-64 in the labour market than at the start of the recession and 200,000 (6.2%) more in work. Over all age groups, there are 387,000 fewer men in work (a net fall of 2.4%) than in the first quarter of 2008, while the number of women in work is only 8,000 (0.05%) lower.

The report also finds that, the older people get, the more likely it is that they will remain out of work for longer when unemployed, although long-term unemployment rates have increased more for younger than older people since the start of the jobs recession.

According to Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the CIPD:

While a combination of population ageing and fewer people wanting to retire early, either for financial reasons or because of a broader desire to prolong their working lives, is boosting the older workforce, it is older women that are getting most of the available jobs. Just why this is happening requires further examination, though with the modern generation of 50 something women more likely to view Madonna than Grandma Grey as a role model, the economically active older woman is well on course to be ever more prominent in British workplaces in the coming years.

However, the relatively good outcome for older women during the recession is no cause for complacency about the need to continually stress the business case for an even more age diverse workforce as the economy starts to recover, especially with so much public policy action understandably focused on cutting youth unemployment. Simplistic talk about older people staying in jobs at the expense of the young must not be allowed to put a brake on progress toward nudging employers to do even better in coping with demographic change. An ageing workforce presents both challenges and opportunities for employers, who at some point in the not too distant future will struggle to fill vacancies unless they recruit and retain older workers, women and men, in even far greater numbers.

Source: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Press Release (April 18, 2012)

Australia: Government Proposes $1,000 Bonus for Hiring Workers Over 50

The Australian government has announced that it will budget $10 million for new "Jobs Bonuses" to help tackle age discrimination and encourage businesses to employ older Australian who want to stay in the workforce, among other things providing $10,000 for employers who recruit and retain a mature age job seeker for more than three months. The initiative is part of the "Government Response to the Final Report of the Advisory Panel on the Economic Potential of Senior Australians."

Included in the response to the Advisory Panel report "Turning Grey into Gold" are funds to extend the Corporate Champions program to provide support to employers who wish to promote mature aged employment at their workplace, to extend the Career Advice service by two years to ensure mature age people have access to free, professional career advice, and to promote lifelong learning by expanding education opportunities by adult and community education providers and community organisations to older Australians.

In addition, the government plans to expand the More Help for Mature Age Workers initiative, to now be called the "Investing in Experience - Skills Recognition and Training" program, to allow industries to benefit from improving the skills of their over 50's workforces. To help address age discrimination and stereotyping of older workers, the government will also provide funds to the Age Discrimination Commissioner to address age discrimination, age stereotyping and ageism more generally, and will review Commonwealth legislation to identify age barriers that prevent continued participation in the workforce for people aged 45 years and over.

Source: Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Media Release (April 18, 2012)

Reaction: National Seniors Media Release (April 18, 2012); SilverTemp "Employers to get $1000. bonus for hiring older workers" (April 17, 2012)

Video: AARP Inside E-Street Looks at Graying Workforce

AARP's video arm has published a three-part series on Inside E-Street about the graying workforce, including an examination of the silver tsunami, workplace design, and how to recruit and retain older workers.

In "The Silver Tsunami," Inside E-Street looks at the changing U.S. workforce and what it means for employers.

In "Changing the Workplace Environment," Josh Kerst, vice president of Humantech and a certified professional ergonomist, speaks with Inside E-Street about the many physical changes that companies can make to their environment to keep employees not only healthy but also more productive.

In "Recruit, Retain, and Integrate Older Workers," Inside E-Street speaks with Samantha Greenfield, a member of Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging & Work about the cultural transformation that many workplaces must go through.

Source: AARP Inside E-Street: The Graying Workforce (April 9, 2012)

United Kingdom: Survey of Industry Employers Finds Preference for Older Unemployeds

EAL (Excellence, Achievement & Learning Limited) has released a survey of 500 industry managing directors and those responsible for HR and training finding that they are less likely to recruit school leavers due to the greater availability of more qualified and experienced applicants during the unemployment crisis. Specifically, 48.2% said the availability of older, experienced candidates who are unemployed made them less likely to offer opportunities to school leavers, and in engineering and manufacturing, almost 70% of employers reported a negative impact on opportunities for young people as a result of current trends.

According to EAL, construction and building services were the industries least affected, with around half of respondents reporting their stance towards school leavers as unchanged by the availability of graduate or adult jobseekers.

Ann Watson, Managing Director of EAL, said: “These findings are a stark reminder of the long-term dangers this country faces if the jobs crisis isn’t resolved. The engineering and manufacturing industry, especially, is already facing a real challenge to develop the skilled employees needed for the future, as existing staff approach retirement age."

Source: EAL Press Release (April 10, 2012)

Singapore: Eligibility, Health Insurance Issues Arising under Reemployment Law for Older Workers

Since Singapore's Retirement and Re-employment Act came into effect on January 1, 2012, a number of issues have arisen, according to press reports. Deputy Prime Minister and Manpower Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has stated during Parliamentary questions, that 14 dispute cases relating to the reemployment rights of older workers have been presented to the Ministry, and Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin has called on employers to work with insurance companies to ensure that the medical needs of those reemployed are met.

With respect to the dispute cases, Shanmugaratnam said most of the cases were over eligibility for re-employment, but otherwise that implementation has been smooth. He urged employers to refer to the "Tripartite Guidelines on the Re-employment of Older Employees" which provides advice on engaging employees and in making re-employment offers.

With respect to health insurance, Tan said issues are arising with respect to newly re-employed persons more so than older employees continuing to work for their employer. For those affected, hed said that if "an insurance company does not extend the coverage of the scheme up to the age of 65 and also requires re-employed employees to be re-assessed, the employer should work with the insurance company to address this issue so that the medical needs of these employees can continue to be met." In addition:

Industry feedback drawn from various briefing and outreach sessions has shown that companies have already raised the coverage of their group medical insurance schemes for their employees to the age of 65, or beyond. In such cases, re-employed workers would continue to enjoy medical benefits under their company’s medical insurance schemes. By so doing, they would avoid the risk of being denied coverage for existing medical conditions that were previously covered.

Sources: Channel News Asia "Employers to ensure medical needs of older workers are met: Tan Chuan-Jin" (April 9, 2012); Manpower Ministry Parliament Questions and Replies (April 9, 2012)

U.S. Employers Ramping Up, but Still Unprepared, for Boomers Leaving the Workforce

U.S. employers are ramping up skills training and employee benefits aimed at closing skills gaps left when Baby Boomers retire, and at retaining and recruiting older workers, according to poll results released by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and AARP. Nevertheless, many U.S. organizations are largely unprepared for the brain drain and skills void that talented, retiring older workers will leave.

On the positive side, according to the SHRM–AARP Strategic Workforce Planning survey, 72% of human resource professionals polled described the loss of talented older workers to be "a problem" or "a potential problem" for their organizations, and many organizations have taken actions to prepare for the loss of talented older workers who retire, including the following:

• increased training and cross-training (45%;
• developed succession planning (38%);
• hired retired employees as consultants or temporary workers (30%);
• offered flexible work arrangements (27%); and
• designed part-time positions to attract older workers (24%).

On the other side, 71% of those polled still have not conducted a strategic workforce planning assessment to analyze the impact of workers 50 and older who will leave their organizations.

SHRM and AARP have partnered to help U.S. businesses and organizations, and, among other things, AARP offers a free, online Workforce Assessment Tool, providing a snapshot of an organization’s workforce and demographics and analyzes its programs to leverage the talents of its older workers, and the SHRM-AARP Partnership Resource Page includes poll and survey findings, articles, and links to the assessment tool, among others.

Source: Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Press Release (April 9, 2012)

Survey: Most Boomers Retired at 65, but Some Keep Working

The MetLife Mature Market Institute reports that the first boomers to reach 65 in the United States--those born in 1946--are "retiring in droves." According to "Transitioning into Retirement: The MetLife Study of Baby Boomers at 65," 45% are completely retired, while another 14% are retired, but working part-time. Of those still working, 37% say they’ll retire in the next year and on average plan to do so by the time they’re 68.

The average retirement age for the 1946 Boomers is 59.7 for men and 57.2 for women. Of those not retired, 61% plan to retire at the same age as they planned one year ago.

With respect to those who are retired, 51% say they retired earlier than they had expected, with 40% of them saying they did so for health reasons. Overall, however, 85% of respondents consider themselves healthy, and 96% of the retirees say they like retirement at least somewhat, with 70% liking it a lot.

Source: MetLife Mature Market Institute Press Release (April 3, 2012)

Canada: Best Employers for Workers over 40

The Globe and Mail has announced its list of Top Employers for Canadians Over 40 for 2012, a group of organizations that are "taking care to keep talent in the house longer with programs and benefits designed for older workers."

The winners--Agriculture Financial Services Corporation, Agrium Inc., BMO Financial Group, Business Development Bank of Canada, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Dalhousie University, Desjardins Group, EllisDon Corporation, Enbridge Inc., HP Advanced Solutions Inc., Manitoba Hydro, NB Power Holding Corporation, Office of the Auditor General of Canada, SaskTel, and University of Toronto--demonstrated their commitment to older workers through various practics:

stable pensions, particularly defined-benefit programs that have become increasingly rare over the past decade; targeted recruitment of older employees; health plans that extend into retirement with no age limit; opportunities for training and development; flexible working arrangements and time off; recognition of previous experience for vacation entitlements; retirement planning; and phased-in retirement working options and mentorship programs to ensure that skills are passed to younger workers.

At the Top Employers for Canadians Over 40 website, detailed information is provided about each of the employers.

Source: The Globe and Mail (April 3, 2012)

Older Workers More Susceptible to Salary Envy than Younger Workers, Reducing Overall Happiness

According to a research paper presented at the 2012 Royal Economic Society Conference, the bigger salaries of high flying colleagues have been found to harm self-esteem and reduce life satisfaction in workers over 45, while knowing that your colleagues and peers earn more than you can actually raise your satisfaction levels of those under 45.

In "So Far So Good: Age, Sex, Happiness and Relative Income," Felix R. FitzRoy (University of St. Andrews), Michael A. Nolan (University of Hull), Max F. Steinhardt (Hamburg Institute of International Economics), and David Ulph (University of St. Andrews) investigated households in Germany and found, contrary to earlier research, that the generally negative effect that peer group income had on happiness of workers was restricted to older workers, who are usually less mobile and can foresee their lifetime income. Retired people were much less concerned about income comparison, probably because of more urgent aging and health issues.

Going beyond our cross-sectional focus here, these results may perhaps also provide an additional explanation for the observed trends in happiness in industrialized/developed countries. Due to ageing populations, and shrinking shares of young people (who are likely to experience gains in SWB from increasing reference income and economic growth), average happiness is more likely to stagnate.

Source: University of St. Andrews News Release (April 3, 2012)

Study: Preparing Academia for an Aging Workforce

The University of Iowa Center on Aging and the TIAA-CREF Institute have issued a report calling on academic institutions to start making a more concerted effort to engage with and support aging employees as they continue to work well past the traditional retirement age. According to "Promoting Workplace Longevity and Desirable Retirement Pathways within Academic Institutions," less than 5% of the 187 academic institution HR officials surveyed identified issues pertaining to aging faculty and staff as a top institutional priority, even though financial obligations to these employees constitute the largest growing part of university budgets.

Brian Kaskie, Ph.D., the lead author and associate professor of health management and policy in the College of Public Health and associate director for the Center on Aging, said that "[b]etween 2000 and 2010 the proportion of all professors 65 and older nearly doubled, and the aging professorate now outpaces all other white collar professions." Thus, "[t]he lack of attention being directed to the challenges and opportunities presented by the aging academic workforce is alarming."

According to the Executive Summary:

There was little correlation among programs and retirement pathway offerings. Institutions that rated highly on wellness programs or retirement counseling services did not always offer a variety of retirement pathways. Instead, most universities and colleges appeared to pursue a piecemeal approach toward accommodating and transitioning aging employees; their efforts more often were developed in response to an immediate demand rather than in pursuit of a strategic plan.

Among the report's recommendations for making more aging-friendly academic institutions are that (1) institutions should address attitudes about the aging workforce and identify offerings in wellness programming, counseling services, workplace accommodations and retirement pathways, and (2) focusing on the development of programs that promote workplace longevity and provide employees with information that aids their decision-making about retirement will go a long way toward maintaining healthy and engaged employees who pursue a more predictable retirement pathway.

Source: University of Iowa Iowa Now (March 21, 2012)