If you’re over 40 and work, you’re in for some big surprises
Disruptions will be enormous, and so will opportunities
According to MarketWatch.com, there's actually some good news for older workers.Boomers and Gen X-ers: Your working world is in for major disruptions between now and 2030, according to a new report from the management consulting firm Bain & Co.
Some highlights:
Companies are hanging on to older workers
The main reason for the good news, according to the Bain experts, is that the abundance of labor seen since the 1970s — due to boomers and women entering the workforce — is winding down. Bain foresees labor-force growth in the U.S. slowing to 0.4% a year in the 2020s. With workers in shorter supply, the Bain analysts say, employers will be eager to hang on to the ones they have and entice applicants, including older ones, to join them.
Employment is becoming more flexible for Boomer workers
“The war for talent” means companies will be innovating like crazy to make compelling offers to workers,” said Schwedel. He anticipates not only more demand for flexible work arrangements from employees and job applicants, he said, but more need for a flexible workforce in general.
Slowing of age discrimination?
Age discrimination by employers, Schwedel said, won’t disappear, but it will change. “You may not see employers offering older workers traditional employment. We’ll be seeing the rise of more part-timers and independent contractors.”
The ability to work longer will be a huge help to many Americans in their 60s without enough retirement savings to let them live out their longer lives in comfort. Bain’s dire view: As things stand now, only about the top 20% of older households are likely to have enough savings to support a traditional retirement. The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis just came out with an even gloomier report, saying that 40% of older workers and their spouses will be “downwardly mobile” in retirement.
Read more of this report here.
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