The aging problem

It's right up there with globalisation. Just the prospect of businesses facing a shortage of talent and experience as millions of baby boomers head off into the sunset is shaping up as a significant issue. And that's not even talking about other potential problems like healthcare, housing and living arrangements. Or for that matter economic growth, savings, investment and consumption, labour markets, pensions and taxation.

This is not a "baby boomer", "Gen X" or "Gen Y" issue. It's going to have an impact on everyone. But a Boston College study suggests that most US businesses are unprepared for the change.

According to the study, more than one in four (25.8 per cent) had not analysed the demographics of their workforce, only 12 per cent had done anything about it, and fewer than four out of 10 (37 per cent) had encouraged employees to work past retirement date. This is despite 39.9 per cent of companies claimed that managament skills are in short supply.

And it's going to get worse. Check this United Nations report World Population Ageing: 1950-2050 .

When the 21st century began, the world population included 600 million older persons, triple the number recorded fifty years before. This is expected to more than triple again to two billion by 2050. According to the report, by 2050 the proportion of older persons in the world will exceed the proportions of the young, under the age of 15, for the first time in history.

Just as significantly, the older population itself is getting older. The fastest growing group is the so-called "oldest old", those aged 80 or older. They are increasing at a rate of 3.8 per cent a year, compared with the total older group which is growing at 2 per cent a year.

This raises another significant issue. With people living longer, it means more of us will taking time off work to step in as carers for elderly parents who are frail, suffering from strokes, Alzheimers Syndrome and heart trouble. And anyone who has been through that will tell you it takes up a lot of time and emotional energy. In any case, there'll be a lot more of these cases around and it means bosses will have to be very flexible.

And the problem is Governments have a limited number of options. They can encourage people to stay at work longer or they can encourage immigration. Alternatively they can lay down conditions, such as maternity leave and child care funding and tax rebates, that might encourage women to have more children. Apart from that, there's little else they can do.

So are you seeing the impact of this trend already? How prepared is your organisation? What should organisations do? Are you already taking time off work to look after a parent? How are you balancing that with work and the rest of your life? And are you yourself ready for the Agequake?

Boomer viewpoint

What we worked for and earned is ours and eventually our children's. Now one vocal section of an otherwise naturally rising Generation X who are taking their place in the workforce without acrimony and without problems want to dip out of the social contract. We are currently paying for the last generation's pensions, as we should, but certain Gen Xs, especially those in the media, are trying to construct a social framework whereby they can abrogate their responsibilities towards us, responsibilities which have always been taken as read.

But that will only force us to work on, thereby continuing to hold them out of the top jobs and so the inevitable is merely delayed. If these malcontents got up off their butts and did some work, they'd be able to take their place in society. The reason they don't is not because of any fault of the Boomers but because of their own unemployability. Essentially, they are losers with a readership.

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