Suggested Readings on the Aging Workforce
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2006-01-30 17:07:11.118929-05:00
AARP recommends that employers who are interested in issues of an older workforce investigate these resources. These publications represent the best of the best among aging workforce resources. They address issues such as recruiting, training, and retaining older workers; creating an age-friendly work environment and employee benefits; the physical, psychological, and social differences between older and younger workers; and health and safety implications of an aging workforce.
"Ensuring Health and Income Security for an Aging Workforce"
Edited by Peter P. Budetti, Richard V. Burkhauser, Janice M. Gregory, and H. Allan Hunt, Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2001.
This publication of papers and commentary by noted members of the National Academy of Social Insurance takes a look at how some of the major worker protection programs are likely to be affected by the doubling of the older worker population over the next two decades. Several chapters assess how workers fare with respect to health insurance, workers compensation, unemployment compensation, and social insurance. Others look at the workforce, job loss, disability from occupational injuries, and the prospects for extending the work life. The chapters are self-contained, so readers interested only in a specific topic or program can go right to the chapter dealing with that topic or program. Much of the entire volume, however, should be of value to a broad audience of employers, human resource managers, policymakers, and researchers. Some chapters (e.g., "Health, Disability, and the Aging Workforce from the Employer's Perspective" or "Employer Perspective on Retirement Trends and Policies to Encourage Work among Older Americans") contain material that may be of particular interest to employers. The book is an excellent reference.
"Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers"
Edited by David H. Wegman and James P. McGee, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2004.
Issued by the prestigious National Research Council of the National Academies, this volume explores the health and safety implications of an aging workforce. Despite improvements in the health status of the aged population, older workers differ from younger workers on a number of physical, psychological, and social dimensions that have implications for performance and productivity. The report reviews what is known about normative and pathologic age-related differences, the social and economic context of work for older persons, and the effects of work on older workers. It also discusses public policies and practices related to the older workforce, interventions to accommodate various age-related changes, and it identifies unmet research needs. As the workforce ages, addressing the health and safety needs of older workers will become increasingly important to employers, policymakers, and workers themselves.
"An Employer's Guide to Older Workers: How to Win Them Back and Convince Them to Stay"
Barbara M. McIntosh, Report prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration's Older Worker Program.
This 41-page report provides employers with practical advice culled from a number of sources on recruiting, retaining, and retraining older workers, arguing that business success will require employers to implement changes that encourage older persons to remain in the workforce. McIntosh covers such topics as selling a company to older workers; understanding the target market; the role of the internet in recruiting workers; becoming an age-friendly organization; diversity training, the importance of elder-care assistance; workforce flexibility and job restructuring; and effective approaches to older worker training. A list of web links and an extensive bibliography offer access to other relevant resources.
"Gauging the Labor Force Effects of Retiring Baby-Boomers" (Adobe Acrobat required)
Arlene Dohm, "Monthly Labor Review," July 2000, pp. 17-25.
This Bureau of Labor Statistics economist examines the potentially substantial impact of the boomers' retirement on the economy and on occupations with a greater-than-average number of workers aged 45 and older. Because women seem to leave the labor force after age 55 more rapidly than men, occupations with large numbers of women may be particularly affected by early retirements. Nevertheless, a number of factors (e.g., increasing immigration and delayed retirement due to changes to Social Security and the increase in defined contribution pension plan coverage) are likely to increase the supply of labor. (More detail and updated projections for the labor force, occupations, and industries can be found in the February 2004 issue of the "Monthly Labor Review.")
Is Working Longer the Answer for an Aging Workforce?
Gary Burtless and Joseph F. Quinn, "An Issue in Brief," No 11, Chestnut Hill, MA: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, December 2002.
The long-term trend toward earlier retirement in the United States seemed to have come to an end after 1985. This article discusses factors that might explain that halt and highlights policy options to foster later retirements. Particular attention is paid to options for increasing the retirement age and the potential impact of lifting the normal retirement age and/or the early retirement age. While many experts predict that larger numbers of workers will postpone retirement, these authors observe that longer worklives are by no means inevitable: Americans, they say, would apparently rather save more than postpone retirement.
"Letting Older Workers Work" (Adobe Acrobat required)
Rudolph G. Penner, Pamela Perun, and Eugene Steuerle, "The Retirement Project Brief Series," No. 16, Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, July 2003.
As boomers begin retiring in larger numbers in a few years, the loss of millions of skilled and experienced workers may pose problems for employers. Some workers might be induced to remain at work longer if more flexible work arrangements become available. However, there are both institutional (company) and legal barriers to fostering longer worklives. The identification and discussion of these barriers which appear in this six-page brief, such as pension plans that penalize workers who postpone retirement, may be of use to employers interested in expanding opportunities for older workers.
Significantly more detail on the topic by the same authors can be found in the 111-page "Legal and Institutional Impediments to Partial Retirement and Part-time Work by Older Workers" Chapter 2, "Economic and Institutional Barriers to Flexible Employment Arrangements" may be of greatest interest to employers.
"New Opportunities for Older Workers" (Adobe Acrobat required) Committee for Economic Development (CED), New York and Washington: CED, 1999.
This publication, produced by an organization of business leaders for their counterparts and public policymakers, acknowledges the economic and social challenges that population aging poses for the country. The Committee for Economic Development "strongly believes that additional years of work. . .will be increasingly desirable" and offers a pro-work agenda and other practical information for employers, policymakers, and older workers themselves. The report tackles a number of issues of concern to employers, including older worker productivity, costs, and ability to learn. Specific advice on recruiting, training, and motivating older workers is provided, as are corporate examples of such practices as phased retirement and rehiring retirees. Updated statistics are available elsewhere and at least one policy recommendation, eliminating the Social Security earnings test for workers above the normal retirement age, has been implemented. Nonetheless, much of the information in the book is as relevant today as it was in 1999.
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