A new senior workforce element is massing, about to wield its brains, its experience, and its new-age drive.
When Geri Morris was forced into retiring in 1998 from the Greenville Housing Authority (GHA) in Greenville, South Carolina, she was at the top of her game in every facet: pay, responsibility, performance, and work ethic—often putting in 12-hour days and loving every minute of it.
Her only “crime” was that she had reached the age of 79, and someone in the GHA decided that she should retire after 31 years—despite the action being unlawful.
“She didn’t realize the power she had to fight the injustice, so she didn’t,” said her son Henry J. Morris in an interview with The Epoch Times. “But I often wonder what would happen in the same circumstances now, since age discrimination in the workforce isn’t as common as it used to be.”
And it’s going to become a lot less common.
The U.S. population continues to age, and seniors are soon going to be the largest age group in the nation. Employers will not only be inclined to keep many of them for essential jobs—such as accounting, insurance, medicine, law, media, education, hospitality, and tourism—they will likely find that an older workforce is the ready-made answer to ongoing labor shortages, high turnover, and the closest they’re ever likely to get to long-term job loyalty.
“The increasing need for older workers in the U.S. is primarily the result of two factors: the general aging of the U.S. population, and, a nationwide labor shortage that emerged in the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic,” Joseph Von Nessen, research economist with the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business in Columbia, South Carolina, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“And although there are several major contributing factors that have helped create this labor shortage, the biggest is the retirement of the Baby Boomers.”
The wave of retirees, however, coupled with a paucity of younger workers to replace them, has left significant gaps in many professional areas—with more expected soon.
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