The U.S. workforce is getting older. Since the baby boom of 1946 to 1964, U.S. birth rates have been declining. Despite a slight rise leading up to 2008, the Great Recession again sent fertility rates plummeting. In 2020, they hit an all-time low. Two years later, the country was still setting record lows in population growth.
By 2024, baby boomers were predicted to become the fastest-growing segment of the working population. Then, COVID hit.
For some retirees that left the labor force after 2020, it had long been their plan. Others chose retirement because the timing was right. According to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, COVID-19 caused just over 2.4 million excess retirements — over half of the 4.2 million people who left the workforce from the pandemic's onset to the second quarter of 2021.
Now, with over 1.8 jobs available for every person looking for work holding steady over the past year, businesses are still finding themselves hard up for skilled workers. Between the Great Resignation and the large-scale exit of retiring baby boomers leaving the workforce, leaders worry about suppressed income, sales, and other revenues facing a smaller pool of workers.
But thanks to the surge in remote possibilities and the spread of universal broadband, we are more equipped than ever to engage the largest pool of potential workers and rejuvenate the workplace. Employers should take advantage of the capabilities of remote work to engage and enable the continued participation of this booming generation.
Baby Boomers Want To Work
People over 65 are increasingly willing and eager to continue to work. From 1994 to 2014, the number of workers 65 and older increased by 117%, growth rates that mirrored those for workers over 74 on their own. Trends for workers over 65 shifted from increasingly less part-time to more full-time work. By 2018, they reported nearly 20% of Americans over 65 were employed or looking for work — up from just under 12% 20 years prior.
In 2014, a Merrill Lynch report found that 70% of retirees wanted to work during retirement and predicted it would be increasingly unlikely for retirees to stop working. Even among the 2.4 million people who retired during the pandemic, at least 1.5 million returned to work. In part, people are living healthier lives longer thanks to advances in science and health care; they feel more capable of continuous learning, development, and production, including the desire to work. On the other hand, rising costs and inflation are making some concerned that pensions alone will soon be insufficient to support them. Experts are suggesting working beyond 65 to take advantage of rising Social Security benefits and secure a better retirement.
Maturity Brings Experience
There is a case to make for hiring older workers beyond a workforce shortage. People over 40 have more experience and are more likely to become successful entrepreneurs. Research shows knowledge and expertise continue to develop beyond the age of 80, and evidence suggests the drive and curiosity for new skill acquisition continues into late adulthood. Older workers can serve as mentors for younger workers, and their age difference contributes to workplace cognitive diversity, which maximizes team output. In an HBR study done with Deloitte, researchers found that age-diverse teams feel more psychologically safe and innovative than age-biased ones.
Employers are starting to realize these advantages. Even before COVID, businesses saw the trends and planned to engage the baby boomer generation. In 2018, a UK survey of 570 British HR professionals found that over half of employers planned to adjust their recruiting strategies to draw in the aging workforce. In 2019, Glassdoor Chief Economist Andrew Chamberlain predicted that starting in 2020, companies would dramatically shift their recruiting focus to attract workers 65 and older as a strategic advantage. Companies like Boeing, Bank of America, Walgreens, and GM invited older workers back to their teams with programs tailored to their specific age groups. Despite past biases against older workers, businesses are starting to see them for the benefits.
Technology Makes It Easier Than Ever
In interviews with about a dozen retirees who returned to work after their post-pandemic retirement, almost all of them said they took jobs willing to accommodate their needs: remote or hybrid options, less travel, and flexibility to set their own hours. Baby boomers are no strangers to remote work. In a 2017 FlexJobs survey of remote workers, about 39% were 50 or older. Another FlexJobs report that same year found baby boomers to be the most common generation to telecommute. Since 2012, tech adoption among baby boomers has seen significant growth. Unlike older generations, those between 59 and 77 are nearly just as likely as millennials and Gen Xers to have home broadband, and 85% use the internet.
With remote work options, older workers can still move closer to family or into retirement-friendly areas with better weather and lower taxes while still contributing to a workforce that needs their help. As we drive universal broadband across the country, building out networks in more rural areas and keeping high-speed internet affordable, we open up access to even more valuable potential employees. For those who have yet to develop a recruitment strategy for this age group that removes obstacles and incorporates incentives that fit their needs, now is the time to get started.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
