|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
|
 |
Aging
boomers will have to work longer By
Ottawa Business Journal Staff October
7, 2003 The end of this decade will see the onset of labor shortages and
surging health-care costs as the baby boomer generation enters its golden
years, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada. Retiring baby boomers were expected to impact the labor market and
the health care system in this decade, but the Conference Board said that
paradigm shift is being delayed by the fact that women over the age of 50
are staying in the workforce longer than their predecessors. Baby boomers were born in the economic boom that followed the end
of the Second World War and includes anyone born between 1947 and 1966. In
2003 this group, aged 37 to 56, accounts for 31 per cent of the
population. The decline in fertility rates in the 1960s due to the introduction
of the birth control pill and more women joining the workforce means that
once the majority of these boomers retire, employers will struggle to find
replacements. According to the Conference Board, employers will be forced to keep
older workers on the payroll for longer, meaning the cost of health-care
benefits for employees will rise a "substantial" 0.8 per cent
per year by 2020. "The real crunch comes as the baby boomers begin to age past
65 and retire, which starts to happen around 2011, and will continue to
just past 2025," said the report. The best way to maintain a labor force of sufficient size will be
to extend the normal retirement age past 65, the report suggested, and
entice workers to stay on with incentives and flexible work schedules that
take advantage of job sharing and telecommuting. "The overall better health of the baby boom generation,
coupled with growing longevity, will physically allow large numbers of
baby boomers to continue working past age 65." Census data from Statistics Canada has revealed that in recent
years, the bulk of the nation's population growth has come from
immigration. The Conference Board acknowledged that skilled immigrants
from East Asia and the Indian subcontinent will pick up some of the slack,
but Canada will have to compete for those people with other developed
countries facing their own labor challenges. About 13 per cent of Canada's population is over the age of 65. That percentage is expected to increase to 20 per cent by 2025. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
