"Staying Ahead of the Curve: The AARP Work and Career Study"
Xenia Montenegro, Ph.D., Linda Fisher, Ph.D., Shereen Remez, Ph.D.
AARP, September 2002.
Available Online
According to this AARP study, the American workforce will become considerably
older overall in the next 12 years; 20 percent of all workers will be over
the age of 55 by 2015, compared to 13 percent in 2000. Consequently, the
country will increasingly be faced with questions regarding the recruiting,
retention and training of older workers.
The study finds that 84 percent of workers over the age of 45 want to continue
working, even if they are financially set for life. Sixty-nine percent intend
to continue working past retirement age. These older workers, however, want
to work on different terms than they had in the past, with a greater emphasis
on work/life balance. Seventy percent of the respondents said they wanted
a better balance between work and their personal lives, with many reporting
that they are dealing with life challenges that required a greater amount
of their attention.
While all of the workers surveyed had a generally optimistic outlook on
their future employability, two-thirds expressed a fear that age discrimination
would impede their advancement and well being in the workplace. Minority
workers over the age of 45 were less optimistic about their future prospects
and expressed a greater desire for work/life balance. Baby boomers (those
between the ages of 45 and 56) represented the largest segment in the study,
followed by those 57 to 64 (20 percent) and those 65 to 74 (7 percent).
