American Workforce Growing Grayer
Hitting the golden age of 65 used to mean this:
For most people now, it means this:
A record number of 28 million people ages 55 and older are holding jobs now, which translates into a 47% increase from 2000. A combination of factors led to this dramatic change: longer life expectancy, less physical jobs that most people perform, better health, and yes, the recent economic downturn. In an environment with fewer jobs, older employees have an unfair advantage over younger ones: experience. The result is younger people are out of work in larger numbers than older ones.
The discrepancy in numbers between the two generations is also a major contributor to the change. According to the USA Today,
This discrepancy will also impact the contributions to the Social Security and Medicare. The younger generation's contribution will not be able to sustain the costs of Social Security and Medicare required to cover such large number of baby boomers.
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For most people now, it means this:
A record number of 28 million people ages 55 and older are holding jobs now, which translates into a 47% increase from 2000. A combination of factors led to this dramatic change: longer life expectancy, less physical jobs that most people perform, better health, and yes, the recent economic downturn. In an environment with fewer jobs, older employees have an unfair advantage over younger ones: experience. The result is younger people are out of work in larger numbers than older ones.
The discrepancy in numbers between the two generations is also a major contributor to the change. According to the USA Today,
"In 2000, the nation had roughly the same number of children and non-working adults. Since then, the population of non-working adults has grown 27 million while the nation added just 3 million children under 18".
This discrepancy will also impact the contributions to the Social Security and Medicare. The younger generation's contribution will not be able to sustain the costs of Social Security and Medicare required to cover such large number of baby boomers.
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