The Aging in America Conference, held in San Francisco April 26-30, was well attended but the sessions had almost no coverage with respect to employment. The speakers and presenters mostly focused on wellness, health care, senior services, legislation, senior care, etc., which is not surprising as the overwhelming majority of the attendees either were professionals in these areas or came from companies, associations or institutions principally involved in these areas.

 

The challenges faced by older Americans in 2011 and beyond were identified and discussed, but I was not satisfied that the solutions presented would do much to mitigate them.

Certainly the monies available to address these challenges will continue to shrink so it is totally necessary what funds are available be better spent. Unfortunately, I have little confidence that great strides will be made in this area as there seems to be too much bickering at both the government and private level to move forward as quickly as need be.

 

In our presentation, we broke earning money during retirement down into working for an employer and self-employment and provided information on how to accomplish either or both.

 

Feedback from visitors to RetiredBrains.com was used to illustrate those areas that provided return on the investment of time devoted to both securing information as well as a successful outcome.

 

More and more employers have been utilizing older workers on a part-time, temporary or project basis, as it is cost effective to do so. Not having to pay benefits or unemployment insurance, as well as the ability to off-board at little or no cost, are significant reasons for this trend. Employers have found, as a general rule, older workers require less training, take less time off, and come in and leave on time in comparison to younger workers. The number of workers in the labor force in the 75+ and 65-74 age categories is projected to increase by over 83% from 2006-2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

A poll of business professionals conducted by RetiredBrains.com supports these findings. Among survey respondents, 32% say they will never retire and 53% indicate they hope to work part-time or project assignments. Only 14% say they do not plan to work in any capacity after they retire.

 

Certainly employers are already dealing with an older workforce and are faced with the challenge of how to make this workforce as productive as possible. This involves redesigning job descriptions and responsibilities and even hours worked to be flexible enough to meet the needs of both employer and employee. Coming out of a time when unemployment has been high and both HR budgets and staff have been cut it has been difficult to devote resources to addressing these changes; however, most employers recognize the coming changes and are beginning to institute ways of dealing with them.