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March 23, 2006
The aging workforce
Through demographics, we can fairly precisely predict how many people there will be in future years in various age groups. And by examining these age projections, we can see important trends for the workforce, says N.C. State University economist Mike Walden.
“We are going to be a very straightforward aging workforce. And many companies are going to have to turn to older workers to survive," says Dr. Walden, a North Carolina Cooperative Extension specialist.
“Just look at these numbers: The number of workers between the ages of 35 and 44 actually going to decline this decade -- fewer number in that age category. And the number of workers under age 35 is going to increase less than 10 percent.
"In contrast the number of workers between 55 and 64 is going to increase 50 percent, and the number of workers over age 65 will go up by 30 percent," he adds.
"So just in terms of raw numbers, businesses are going to have ... to look to older workers simply to survive.”
Posted by deeshore at March 23, 2006 08:00 AM