Impacts of an Aging Workforce

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications that the aging workforce will have on businesses and on the human resources departments of the businesses in the United States. I will, define the problem and the cause of the problem, I will define what this means for businesses and what this means for the field of Human Resources.

Defining the problem and the causes.

Why, are we looking at the aging workforce and showing such fear? Well the fact is that we are at a turning point in the population where, according to the United States Department of labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics, the "Baby Boomers", people born from 1946 through 1964, (DofC, 2001) which, total seventy five million people or one third of the total population, will, "[Continue] to age, with the number of workers in the 55-and-older group projected to grow by 49.1 percent....... Youths. [Between the ages of 16 and 24] will decline in numbers and lose
The work force is basically aging at a very fast rate in the next decade and there is going to be a shortage of workers over the next ten years largely in skilled job fields. This is a major issue because the baby boomer generation was, and still is, the most educated generation, especially in the fields of sciences and math. The generation "Yers" and "Xers" do not have the higher education that will be required to fill these skilled positions when the baby boomers either retire or start to die off. (DeLong, 2004) The Bureau of Labor and Statistics has performed a study of the most affected jobs that will be impacted by the baby boomers. The study shows as follows:

"Occupations most affected by baby-boomer retirements, 1993-2008

(percent change from 1993-98 to 2003-08 in retiree replacement needs)"

Occupation Percent / %

Supervisors, police and detectives 80.2

Postal clerks, except mail carriers 81.0

Personnel and labor relations managers 83.6

Eligibility clerks, social welfare 85.0

Industrial engineers 87.6

Teachers aides 91.8

Photographers 94.8

Teachers, special education 135.4

Management analysts 152.0

Airline pilots and navigators 172.7 Chart taken in whole from (DOL, 2001)