Ford Designs Ergonomic Workstation To Ease Work for Older Workers

An aging population in Europe and increases in retirement ages in some countries led Ford to put together a team of occupational physicians, production specialists, labor groups and representatives for disabled employees to improve the ergonomics, safety and productivity on the assembly line. A result of this effort has been the creation of an advanced ergonomic work station--the "Happy Seat"--that reduces chronic injuries and lower health costs.

According to Martin Chapman, operations plant manager in Cologne factory, where Ford produces the Fiesta:

Employees just push themselves back and forth and the chair swings in and out of the cabin--very simply and not requiring much physical effort. And the back feels fine, allowing employees to remain in employment longer to the benefit of Ford--ideally until they reach the age of retirement, the age of which many European governments have raised only recently.

Other measures employed by Ford to ensure production line workers’ health include movable platforms to raise vehicle chassis to different heights at various workstations, preventing excessive stretching and bending by employees; virtual software programs to design the most ergonomic production processes possible; and Santos, a computerised avatar that performs actions in the virtual world to help Ford improve quality, safety and ergonomics for its assembly line employees.

Source: Press Release Ford Motor Co. (April 26, 2011)

Colorado: Demographics Catching Up on State Working Population

Elizabeth Garner, Colorado's state demographer, is quoting saying that Colorado has been living in a dream that is soon going to end, and that the state is about to lose the "demographic dividend" it has had for several years--a relatively young population that has provided a healthy, productive workforce. According to an article by Emery Cowan in the Durango Herald, spoke at a conference of the Economic Development Council of Colorado.

"Now we’re going to shift out of that," she said, and the state needs to adapt. "We need to be strategic, we need to be making some really good choices because we don’t have that dividend anymore. We’re done with that comparative advantage we’ve had for 30 years."

Among other things, by 2030, the state’s population of people age 65 and older will be 150% larger than 2010, and about 1 million workers will be aging out of the labor force.

To see Colorado's labor force participation by age and gender and other parameters, go to State Demography .Office

Source: Durango Herald "Aging population in Colorado to change the face of workforce" (April 21, 2011)

Norway: Centre for Senior Policy to Hold Book Launch Covering 2010's Conference on Older Workers in a Sustainable Society

Norway's Centre for Senior Policy (Senter for seniorpolitikk) is holing a book launch on May 5 for Older Workers in a Sustainable Society, edited by Richard Ennals and Robert H Salomon. The launch will include comments by the Centre's director director Kari Østerud about the challenges and opportunities for older workers in Norway and by Liv Tørres political adviser in the Ministry of Labour, who will speak about Norway's position before the European Year of Active Ageing in 2012.

Ennals and Salomon's book follows on from the conference sponsored by the Centre in 2010. The three-day conference ("Older Workers in a Sustainable Society: Great Needs and Great Potentials") heard from speakers from several countries about the potentials of older workers, both individually and as an important part of societies' work force.

The conference was designed to put a different perception on the agenda; older workers as experienced and mature, a valuable source of talent, skills and knowledge, and ready, willing and able to work. It explored the social and economic potential in an ageing society and addressed the question of research contribution to employment of older workers. Among other topics, the conference had sessions and workshops on older workers work performance, productivity and quality; reducing age discrimination in working life; the work environment and older workers; and lifelong learning and competence at work. Presentations and abstracts from the conference are available on the web.

Source: Senter for seniorpolitikk Calendar of Events (May 5, 2011)

Survey Finds Older Workers More Likey To Be Bullied at Work

According to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder which showed that 27%t of workers reported they have felt bullied in the workplace with the majority neither confronting nor reporting the bully, workers age 55 or older, and workers age 24 or younger were among the gender and age-based segments more likely than others to report feeling bullied.

Specifically, 29% of workers age 55 or older and 29% of workers age 24 or younger reported they had been bullied on the job. In contrast, workers age 35 to 44 were the least likely to report feeling bullied at 25%.

Although bullies can be intimidating, nearly half of workers (47 percent) said they confronted the bully about his/her actions. Of these workers, 43 percent said the bullying stopped, 13 percent reported the bullying became worse while 44 percent said the bullying stayed the same.

Source: CareerBuilder.com Press Release (April 20, 2011)

United Kingdom Poll Finds Ageist Attitudes among Younger Workers

A poll conducted by Anchor Trust reports 41% of Britons aged 18-24 years saying there aren’t enough jobs for older people to be in work and 14% claiming older people should retire to make way for younger blood. Even though the United Kingdom's default retirement age of 65 has ended, Anchor reports that as far as young people are concerned, one hits the old age mark at age 62. In response, Anchor Trust is launching a "Grey Pride" petition drive calling on the British Government to follow the lead of Ireland and Canada and have a dedicated older people’s minister to champion the over-60's.

Anchor's poll also found that 21% of those polled believe the over 60s are slower and are less productive than their junior counterparts, and 5% claim they should be paid less because they work at a slower pace. In addition, 18% of young Britons call over-60s grumpy and 21% say they they are out of touch with modern society.

Jane Ashcroft, Chief Executive of Anchor, said: “Casual ageism has no place in society and these results bear no reality to the lives of the over 60s in England today who are active, energetic and contribute hugely to many of the most successful businesses and organisations in the country. The dismissive attitudes highlighted by Anchor’s research towards the over 60s are a sad indictment of attitudes in England."

Source: Anchor Trust News Release (April 19, 2011)

Hays Study Calls for Global Government Response to Looming Unemployment

Hays plc, a global recruiting firm, in partnership with economic forecaster Oxford Economics, has called on governments and industries across the world to take joint action to tackle the looming threat of increased global unemployment as the world's working population is set to increase dramatically--by 1 billion in next 20 years. However, that growth will be uneven, as all of this growth will be developing economies; the developed world will see its workforce shrink and age.

Accordingly, in "Creating Jobs in a Global Economy 2011-2030" (or click here for PDF), Hays proposes a five-point plan to avert future labor crises as significantly more people are set to join the global labor force.

1. Keep national borders open for the movement of skilled labour.
2. Agree an international code to facilitate employee migration.
3. Invest in training and education.
4. Create employment opportunities in the developing world.
5. Retain older people in the workplace.

With respect to the fifth point that should be the basis of further discussion by world and business leaders, Hays says:

Over the next 20 years developed economies will become increasingly reliant on the contribution from workers aged 60 or more. Many countries such as Britain have already passed anti-discrimination legislation to enable older people to stay at work and remain productive, but there is more to be done both in terms of maintaining the skills of an aging workforce as well as providing opportunities for these workers.

In this regard, the report notes that data "suggest older workers exhibit a number of different labour market characteristics from younger ones:

• They have a greater tendency to be self-employed and a lower tendency to be employees.
• The distribution of older workers across industries differs from the rest of the workforce.
• They have a greater tendency to be part-time or work on temporary contracts than other workers.
• Older workers tend to remain with an employer for longer periods of time than other workers.
• Involuntary separations are lower for older workers than younger ones.
• If older workers become unemployed, they tend to remain jobless for longer durations than other workers.

Accordingly, Hays recommends "examining each of these phenomena in detail as they contain different lessons for employers seeking to get the most out of their available staff."

Source: Hays plc Press Release (April 12, 2011)

Research Study Finds Older Workers Health Benefits from Wellness Coaching

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have found that older workers benefit most from a modest health behavior program when it combines a web-based risk assessment with personal coaching. The Cost-Effective Health Promotion for Older Workers study was led by Susan Hughes, professor of community health sciences, co-director of the UIC Center for Research on Health and Aging at the Institute for Health Research and Policy.

According to Hughes, the health behaviors that were examined were physical activity, diet, stress reduction and smoking cessation, and 95% of workers aged 40-68 participating in the study used a Web-based risk assessment when theere was personal coaching support, but only 59% did so when there was no personal support. Hughes and her co-researchers have published the results of the study in the May 2011 issue of American Journal of Public Health: "Comparison of Two Health-Promotion Programs for Older Workers."

An interview with Hughes is also available online.

Source: University of Illinois at Chicago News Release (April 14, 2011)

Canada: Apparel Industry Confronts Aging Workforce

The Canadian Apparel Human Resources Council (AHRC) has released the findings and recommendations concerning the aging of both management and staffing in the apparel industry.

Among the issues discussed in "Pressing ahead: Canada’s transforming apparel industry," the apparel industry has to deal with a lack of succession plans for small businesses with aging owners and a looming shortage of production workers many of whom are nearing retirement age--7,000 of these workers could retire soon and that there are virtually no sources of supply for new production workers.

Sources: Apparel Human Resources Council Press Release (March 31, 2011); Montreal Gazette "Apparel companies face labour hurdles" (March 31, 2011)

United Kingdom: Government Paper Calls for Examining Future State Pension Age Increases

During the same week that the United Kingdom's law removing the default retirement age that had allowed companies to force workers to leave at 65 went into effect, the Department for Work and Pensions released a consultation setting out on how to simplify the state pensions system for future pensioners, including looking at processes for future increases in the retirement age. The consultation--A state pension for the 21st century--notes that longevity increases already have figured in raising the pension age to 66 by April 2020, but that increases in longevity do not end in 2020 and it is only fair that those generations who will benefit from these increases share in the costs.

Specifically, the government is asking (1) What mechanism should be used to determine future increases in State Pension age? and (2) How should the Government respond to the frequent revisions in life expectancy projections while giving individuals sufficient time to prepare? The paper suggests some possibile mechanisms, such as increasing the age through a formula linked to life expectancy, or alternatively increasing the by puting in place a review at regular, pre-determined intervals.

As noted in an article in The Telegraph before the paper's release:

However Mr Duncan Smith said the Government was preparing to increase the retirement age further because people are living longer and "don't feel like retiring at 65".

Mr Duncan Smith told the Murnaghan programme on Sky News: "The last Government already set projections to 67, 68 ... and we are revising those to look again.

“There is no question, no point in hiding the fact that retirement will have to move over a period, obviously to help people adjust, for two reasons.

"First of all, because we are living longer, most people don't feel like retiring at 65. We have many, many thousands now choosing to work beyond 65 and that's why we lifted that thing called the default retirement age, where you could be forced into retirement."

Sources: Department for Work and Pensions Press Release (April 4, 2011); The Telegraph "Most of us want to work beyond 65, says Iain Duncan Smith" (April 3, 2011); Age UK "Default retirement age scrapped from today" (April 6, 2011)

United Kingdom: Ageism of Greatest Concern to Older Population

Demos and Brunel University have released a study looking at aging policy from older people’s point of view, finding, among other things, that the very negative narratives about an aging society that conceptualise aging and older people as a problem are contributing to many older people feeling demoralised and disengaged from politics and the policy-making process. In fact, according to one of the authors of the study, agism to be a greater concern than crime among older people: "Whereas ageism was discussed vigorously in every one of our research groups, crime did not receive a single mention."

"Coming of Age", authored by Louise Bazalgette, John Holden, Philip Tew, Nick Hubble, and Jago Morriso, finds that age discrimination was felt to impact on every area of older people’s lives; in employment, in public services, in public places and even in family life. With respect to work and retirement, in particular, the study finds that the United Kingdom's "one size fits all" approach to retirement policy may itself be discriminatory and counter-productive, since it is those with the worst health and the lowest life expectancies who will suffer most from increases in the state pension age.

Accordingly, the authors suggest that, to "mitigate these problems it will be essential that the government both takes action to improve general health and reduce health inequalities, and investigates how employment can be made more flexible to reflect the heterogeneity of older people’s skills, personal responsibilities (eg caring roles) and health prospects."

Source: DEMOS "Putting a stop to age discrimination" (April 8, 2011)

Australia: Chambers of Commerce Endorse Government Promotion of Mature Age Employment and Apprenticeships

The Tasmanian (TCCI) and Australian (ACCI) Chambers of Commerce and Industry have congratulated the Australian government for its promotion of mature age employment participation. As noted by ACCI Chief Executive, Peter Anderson: "Australian employers need to develop innovative strategies to attract and retain valued employees to meet the vital skills needs of their business now and into the future."

The government endorsement follows the issuance of an ACCI research project--"It's Not About Age"--which focuses on building positive employment and training outcomes for employers and mature age apprentices to ensure that the Australian business community has access to a highly skilled and motivated workforce.

Separately, TCCI Chief economist Mark Bowles said hiring mature-aged workers was both a solution to Tasmania's skills shortage and inevitable because of our ageing population. According to Bowles, figures from the ACCI estimated 85% of workforce growth in the next decade would be for workers over 45, and he thought that figure could even be higher for Tasmania

Sources: Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Media Release (March 30, 2011); Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Media Release (March 30, 2011); The Mercury "Older worker championed" (April 19, 2011)

See also links to Australian resources.

Canada: Oil Industry Facing Skills Shortage

According to a report issued by the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada, an aging workforce is a chief contributor to the fact that Canada's oil and gas industry is headed towards severe and chronic labour shortages. Specifically, the Council's labour market report--"The Decade Ahead: Labour Market Projections and Analysis for Canada's Oil and Gas Industry to 2020"--finds that over 30% of the industry's core workforce is expected to retire within the next decade, driving the need to hire at least 39,000 workers.

Cheryl Knight, Executive Director and CEO of the Council says that "We are going into a perfect storm....Just when the industry needs workers the most, Canada's labour supply will be dwindling as the overall population ages. Our industry will need to be prepared to face a labour shortage more severe than in 2007." In fact, some oil and gas companies are already coping with chronic shortages for certain occupations, and shortages are expected in all core occupations as early as 2013.

Source: Petroleum Human Resources Council of CanadaNews Release (March 29, 2011)

Nevada: Unemployment Statistics Highlight Growth of Older Workers' Participation Rate

Even with a rise of unemployment in Nevada, which has seen the participation rate decline for Nevada’s labor force as a whole fromm 2000 to 2010, it has grown for the state’s oldest workers. Specifically, in reporting the February 2011 unemployment statistics, the state's Department of Employment. Training, and Rehabilitation reported that, during those ten years, the labor force
participation rate in Nevada declined from 70% to 65.6%, while the participation rate for workers 65 and older increased from 12.8% to 20.6%.

The growth in the participation rate of older workers is likely caused by two factors: (1) a social change, marking the ability of older workers to work later into life, and (2) recessionary wealth destruction is forcing older workers to delay retirement due to financial reasons.

Sources: Nevada Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation Press Release (March 25, 2011); Northern Nevada Business Weekly "Number of over-65 workers in Nevada continues to increase" (April 4, 2011)

Poland: World Bank Report Recommends Raising Older Worker Participation

A report from the World Bank asserts that the main potential for increasing labor force participation in Poland is among older workers and women. If older workers in Poland were as active as they are in Germany, then the Polish gross domestic product would be up to 6% higher.

Employment is a major focus of the World Bank's report--"Europe 2020 Poland: Fueling Growth and Competitiveness in Poland Through Employment, Skills, and Innovation". A higher employment rate is also critical given the aging population and the growing life expectancy.

The difference between Poland and other EU countries is greatest in the case of older workers, which reflects in large part the, until recently, very generous rules governing early retirement. Specifically, only 35 percent of persons aged 55–64 are economically active in Poland (table 2) compared with the EU average of 51 percent, 58 percent in Chile and 62 percent in Korea (2009 data). This is a significant gap. Closing it is particularly important because the Polish population is aging, and if the gap is not closed, the pension system will be fiscally unsustainable (as will be further elaborated)

The report recommends raising economic activity among older workers (and older female workers, in particular), through reform of social security benefits and development of flexible forms of employment, particularly of part-time employment, increasing skills, and raising the retirement age--specifically by adjusting the retirement age of women to that of men (age 65).

For example, the report notes that "if the number of inactive women aged 55–59 fell by 10 percent the overall employment/population ratio would increase by nearly 0.5 percentage points. In contrast, a 10 percent fall in inactivity among women aged 20–24 would lead to a less than 0.1-percentage-point increase in the overall employment rate." Furthermore, older workers in Poland are provided with incentives to withdraw from the labor force. The availability of disability pensions and early retirement options might make inactivity the preferred choice for many older workers. I

Source: World Bank Press Release (March 21, 2011)

Gemany: Europe's First Test of Job Crunch from Aging Workforce

In an article by Larry Elliott and Julia Kollewe in the Guardian, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Ralf Brauksiepe describes how Germany needs to respond to the loss of 5 million workers over the next 15 years as it becomes Europe's first and biggest test of the problems caused by an ageing and declining population, saying that a longer working life and an influx of skilled workers from overseas were the answer to the demographic time bomb.

Since lifting restrictions on labor mobility from EU member states in eastern Europe will lead only to an extra 100,000 workers over the coming years, the phased changes in retirement age between 2012 and 2029, when 67 which will become the statutory retirement age, is most important.

"It must be clear to people that working longer than the age of 65 must be the rule," Brauksiepe said. "I am convinced that in 20 years people won't understand how people were opposed to the enlargement of the working life in 2011."

Source: Guardian"Germany faces up to problem of ageing workforce" (March 17, 2011)

OECD Pension Reforms Report Also Focuses on Older Workers

The OECD has published Pensions at a Glance 2011: Retirement-Income Systems in OECD and G20 Countries, focusing on pensions, retirement and life expectancy. Among other things, while by 2050 the average pensionable age in OECD countries will reach 65 for both sexes, life expectancy is rising even faster, outstripping the increase in pension ages by about 2 years for men and 1.5 years for women. However, as governments rein in public pension spending rising as a result of population aging, OECD warns that income from work and from private pensions and other savings.will need to fill the gap, so that ensuring that there are enough jobs for older workers remains a challenge.

According to OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, "Countries need to do more to fight discrimination, to provide training opportunities for older workers and to improve their working conditions . This would help employers adapt to a greyer workforce."

In addition to providing comparative indicators on the national pension systems provided in the report of the 34 OECD countries, as well as for Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, the report includes special chapters on issues including life expectancy, trends in retirement and working at older ages, and ways to help older workers find and retain jobs.

For example, in highlights about France, the report notes:

In addition, the participation rates of older workers aged 60 and over is low: only 19% of men aged between 60 and 64 years participate in the labor market in France compared to 54.5% on average across countries OECD. This percentage is even lower in the age group 65-69: 5.5% in France compared to 29.3% on average in the OECD. For the long-term success of reforms change in the attitudes towards older people is necessary. Employers, both private and public, must learn to see older workers as a real asset and avoid discrimination towards them, invest in their training and adjust labour market conditions and hours of work when needed.

Source: OECD News Release (March 17, 2011)

EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey Shows Continued Worker Worries, Delayed Retirement Plans

The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) reports that 27% of workers now say they are "not at all confident" about retirement, up 5 percentage points from last year. The 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey, EBRI's 21st annual survey, also published as Issue Brief No. 355, also finds that find that a significant number of workers say they now intend to retire later (at an older age) than they had planned.

Specifically, the age at which workers expect to retire continues its slow, upward trend. The percentage of workers who expect to retire after age 65 has increased over time, from 11% in 1991 and 1996 to 20% in 2001, 25% in 2006, and 36% in 2011. Of the 20% polled who say that are going to retire later than originally planned, the main reason cited was the poor economy (36%), a lack of faith in Social Security or the government (16%), a change in employment situation (15%), or because they can’t afford to retire (13%).

In addition, the survey finds more workers now expect to work for pay in retirement, with 74% reporting they plan to work in retirement (up from 70% in 2010), three times the percentage of retirees who say they actually worked for pay in retirement (23%).

Source: EBRI Press Release (March 15, 2011)

Working and Longevity May Go Hand in Hand

As Emily Yoffe writes in Slate, people who keep doing useful work may have the secret to living longer and healthier. Drawing on The Longevity Project, by psychology professors Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin, which presents the end-of-life findings of the Terman study, one of the longest-lasting longitudinal research projects ever undertaken, she finds evidence that maybe retirement should not be seen as the severing of oneself from the work of a lifetime.

Friedman dislikes that notion of retirement, and from his research he's come to believe such an attitude is bad both for society and individuals. Most "of the Terman males (given the attitudes of the times, far fewer of the women Termites worked) had solid, sometimes even exceptional careers. Interviews done with successful Termites in their 70s, several of them lawyers, showed a striking number continued to work part time."

Furthermore, Yoffe notes, those who contemplate retirement as decades filled with leisure and relaxation may be mistaken; fun may be overrated and stress can be unfairly maligned. "Many study participants who lived vigorously into old age had highly stressful jobs."

Source: Slate "Don't Stop Working!" (March 10, 2011)

Digital Divide Separates Older Workers in Job Searches According to UK Research

A study commissioned by the United Kingdom's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the role of the Internet in looking for work reveals, among other things, that many older jobseekers are at a disadvantage because of the digital divide and a number of other variables. DWP's Research Report No. 726--"Job Search Study: Literature review and analysis of the Labour Force Survey"--was authored by several researchers from the University of Warwick and found that over four out of five job seekers made use of the Internet to look for work but a number of factors influenced those overall figures, one of which was age.

Focusing just on the report's findings with respect to older workers, the following results were noted:

• Younger people were more likely to use multiple job search methods than older people.
• Job seekers aged 16-29 year and older job seekers aged 50-69 years were more likely than those in their thirties and forties to nominate visiting a jobcentre, job market or training and employment agency as their main method of job search.
• Social networks as a job-search method were used slightly more by younger job seekers (notably those aged 16-29 years) than by older job seekers.
• Around 87% per cent of jobseekers aged 25-29 and 84% of 30 to 34 year olds used the Internet to search for work, while only 75% of those aged 50-54 did so, 72% of those 55-59 years old, and 62% of those 60-64 years old.

Sources: Department for Work and Pensions Press Release (March 3, 2011); TAEN--The Age and Employment Network News Archive (March 7, 2011)

New Zealand: Research on Encore Careers Finds Older Workers Happier, Healthier

In an article for The New Zealand Herald, Greg Fleming writes about encore careers and draws on a Waikato University study focused on encore careers--meaningful work, paid or unpaid in the second half of life--which has found older people who work are happier and healthier than those who don't.

Fleming also notes that the study found that not all older workers experienced smooth transitions and that some of those surveyed for the research struggled to find meaningful work, found employment agencies unhelpful, and success often depended on individual initiative. He quotes research fellow Dr. Margaret Richardson of the Waikato Management School: "Many managers had negative stereotypes of older workers believing that they were unable to change and lacked the appropriate job-seeking skills such as how to write a CV and how to present at interviews."

Richardson, along with Mary Simpson and Ted Zorn, has also presented a paper on ""Out the Door," "Back for More," or "New Horizons": Multiple Meanings for Encore Careers" at the 2010 at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association. In this paper, the authors set out preliminary findings of a study into New Zealanders’ experiences with encore careers, and the authors illustrate the different discourses and meanings that encore workers and, to a lesser extent, managers associated with their experiences in or with encore careers—in paid or voluntary work.

Source: The New Zealand Herald "Older workers choosing work over retirement" (March 6, 2011)