In the seemingly never-ending conversation about the “future of work,” older workers figure prominently. There is growing recognition that enabling older workers to remain economically productive is good for their well-being, good for their employers and good for the economy. But I would like to highlight another benefit older workers can bring to the table: their potential to help solve social problems.
First, a brief detour to the well-known numbers: older workers are a large, and rapidly growing, segment of the workforce across the world. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 25% of the country’s labour force in 2024 will be 55 or older; that’s up from 22% in 2014 and just 12% in 1994. In the U.K., the number of those aged over 70 who are in full- or part-time employment has been steadily rising year on year for the past decade, reaching a peak of 497,946 in the first quarter of this year – an increase of 135% since 2009.
Not everyone agrees that this surge in the number of working “perennials” – as this cohort has sometimes been called — is necessarily to be welcomed. A recent RSA report examining the impact of the technological age on older workers in the UK, for example, outlined four different scenarios, not all of which were positive.
But contrary to the traditional view of older workers as an unmitigated drain on resources, there is growing appreciation of what they might bring to the table.
Read the rest of this post over on the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing blog…
Image: Office Business Colleagues Meeting via Pixabay
Like what you’re reading? Sign up to my “Good Reads for Grownups” newsletter, a monthly round up of books and films I’ve liked, the latest research on aging, and other great resources about the eternal journey of adulthood, plucked from around the web. Subscribe here.
