The Meaning of Age
(September 14, 2007) The
meaning of age is changing. Where retirement was all but guaranteed
after 45 years of work, many people over 65 continue to hold their jobs.
Imagine the scenes from
Office Space
when the workers include grandparents and their grandchildren in the
same office.)(By the way,
Taleo sent me a copy of Office Space
as a promotional thingy. It made me popular, for a moment, with my
oldest daughter. It was a small, memorable moment. If Taleo can deliver
small memorable moments with consistency, their place is secure.)
The labor department released this
interesting tidbit:
Nationally, nearly one in four people
between the ages of 65 and 74 (23.2 percent) were in the labor force
(either working or looking for work) in 2006, an increase from 19.6
percent in 2000. States with some of the lowest rates of older
workers in the labor force include West Virginia (15.7 percent),
Michigan (18.8 percent) and Arizona (19.4 percent). (Michigan and
Arizona were not statistically different.)
Some of the highest rates were found
in South Dakota, Nebraska and Washington, D.C., all with about
one-third of people in this age group in the labor force.
Among the 20 largest metro areas,
Washington, D.C., had the highest percentage of people in the labor
force in this age group (31.8 percent). Others with high percentages
include Boston (28.1 percent), Dallas- Fort Worth (27.9 percent),
Minneapolis-St. Paul (27.4 percent) and Houston (26.5 percent), none
of which were statistically different from the other.
Almost everywhere, the number of people
between 65 and 74 in the workforce or looking for work grew by nearly a
percentage point a year.
That's an astonishing rate of growth and
suggests a doubling of the percentage of older people who work between
2000 and 2010. Talk about transformation in a workplace.
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