Comments on: As boomers retire, threat of hollow workforce looms

By: Coffeetrader

Coffeetrader — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 06:10:34 +0000

This is something that is going to affect our economy. But I am sure we will somehow adjust to make the difference.
It already is taking a toll on the pension funds. When all of these wave of retirees are withdrawing these funds from their accounts, then their will be less for future generations.
This is a definite difficult question to be answering. But it is something in which it is going to be effacting our economy and way of life.

By: Martha Perez

Martha Perez — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:27:31 +0000

I was born in 1973, and was raised by my Depression-era grandparents. They gave me sound advice for life, health & career, etc. I have passed that same advice on to my own daughter (who was born in 1991). Since my daughter & I are part of the current (& future) workforce, it was prudent that we both received, at minimum, a college education.

At this point, whatever the government decides to further invest in our viability as workers, will equal the rate of return. While I’ve read that 70% of federal employees will be eligible for retirement, I don’t realistically see this happening en masse (for the same reasons as explained in the article per se) but rather, thru a process of retired annuitants returning to the workforce, on a part-time basis, due mainly to the rising costs of healthcare.

There is no magic formula to anticipate how this transitional shift will portray. However, with on-going long-term contingency planning, union cooperation, and an outreach to regional partnerships with workforce training development programs at the state level, shall mostly ensure that there will be no major disruption in the emerging economy, particularly in the nursing, teaching, and labor industries.

By: A Perspective

A Perspective — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:45:48 +0000

Sorry – I am not sure that this isn’t a hollow article. There isn’t a single link to statistical data. It seems more a collection of anecdotal comments bordering more on truthiness than evidentiary data.

An interesting statistic would have been the age composition of the construction industry possibly by occupation. Without statistical data is impossible to discern potential differences between the construction industry and other industries. Thus, generalities follow.

The baby-boom occurred between 1946 and 1964. Depending on how one defines retirement age – the years of concern or potential retirement from workforce participation starts in 2008 if retirement age is assumed 62; 2011 if the age is 65, and 2013 if the age is 67.

The problem is that the focus on baby-boomers assumes that they constitute or will constitute the primary portion of the labor force – they don’t; in 2005 it was 16.2%%. There are other factors relating to the overall potential decline in labor force participation, e.g., decrease in participation by the young and stabilization of women’s participation.

The interesting factor is that for several reasons the workforce participation rate will apparently increase for the 64 and older group as a percentage of population, that is, retirement doesn’t necessary come at a certain age. E.g., life expectancy, health care costs, need for additional income, changes in retirement laws, changes in social security.

Also immigration (expected to increase) may well affect the rates. This might especially impact the construction industry where there is already a substantial Hispanic segment.

Finally, there is an assumption that in the immediate future the economy will pick up and therefore unemployment rates will substantially decrease. In fact, there seems to be a consensus that even if the economy improves employment will not.

The baby-boom was the first but not the only baby-boom; there was the baby-echo, 1976-2001, with an intervening baby-bust decrease. But, the birth rate was not all that different in 2005 than in 1960s. To focus on baby-boomers as if their “mass retirements,” and that alone, will cause a major disruption in the construction labor market is not fact based.

A decent resource page with several relevant articles: