Great to be Grey: How can the NHS can recruit and retain more older staff?
[December 2002 - KING'S FUND REPORT SUMMARY - Sandra Meadows] Great to be Greyexamines a key aspect of NHS staffing: that of the loss of experience from the health service as older staff, who are valuable and much needed, leave early in ever-increasing numbers. With a workforce where about 150,000 of the one million employed are aged 50 or over � and therefore eligible for early retirement � there is an urgent need for a more sensitive and imaginative approach to encouraging older staff not to leave work earlier than planned, and to recruit older people to health service posts. This research paper outlines what form this approach might take. It examines:
* the numbers of older staff leaving the NHS early
* the reasons why they are leaving
* what can be learned from other sectors regarding the recruitment and retention of older people
* current Government policy
* how investment in human resources can support these new Government initiatives.

The 'Mature Worker' Glut
[16 December 2002 - Newsweek] The pressures for early retirement are clear. But in an aging society, they're disastrous. We need to have a profound transformation of work.

Bin it: A fixed retirement age is an anachronism
[12 December 2002 - The Economist] The idea of retiring at 65 is astonishingly out-of-date. ... A better solution is to get rid of a set retirement age altogether.

Do Older Workers Have More Trouble Using a Computer Than Younger Workers?
[February 2002 - MAASTRICHT [NETHERLANDS] RESEARCH CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND THE LABOR MARKET] Technological change is often perceived to harm the position of the incumbent workforce compared to new entrants. Particularly the labor-market position of older workers, who are thought to have lower abilities or incentives to acquire new skills, might be deteriorated by the arrival of new technologies. Computers are a major example of such a new technology. A lack of skills might hamper computerization of the jobs of older workers and decrease the value of their existing skills. Several authors have shown however that the age pattern of computer use does not seem to fit in this view and argued that the relationship between age, computer use and skills is more complex. This paper examines the computer use of older workers from the perspective that the availability of skills is not the only factor relevant for the decision to invest in computers. Using British data, estimates are presented showing that computer use does not depend on age when taking into account wage costs and the tasks to be performed at work. It does turn out that older workers embody less computer skills than younger workers, but the main distinction lies between the 20-29 year old workers and the others. Investigating the value of computer skills reveals that these skills do not seem to yield labor-market returns and the relative lack of computer skills is unlikely to negatively affect the wages of older workers. Hence, the analysis does not find support for the concern about older workers not being able to cope with computers. (PDF)

The Survey on Health, Aging, and Wealth
[September 2002 - CENTER FOR STUDIES IN ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, UNIVERSITY OF SALERNO (ITALY)] This methodological note on the Survey on Health, Aging and Wealth is part of the research project on The Economics of Aging in Europe financed by the European Union under its Research and Training Network Programme. Funding for the data collection has came from the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research and from the European Union under the TMR Research Network on Saving and Pensions.

Older people & lifelong learning: Choices and experiences
[17 December 2002 - EurekaAlert] Learning is good for you not only if you are young and setting out on the career path but also if you are older and retired, says new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. To date, educational policy has tended to concentrate 'lifelong learning' programmes on younger people. This research, carried out within the ESRC's Growing Older Research Programme established that older people who are no longer learning to improve income or job prospects in fact benefit widely. It is apparent that, contrary to the old idea that 'you can't teach old dogs new tricks' many of them greatly enjoy learning and would welcome more informal learning routes.

What Do You Mean You Want to Take It Easy?
[16 December 2002 - Wall Street Journal - Ellen Graham] Today, retired for two years and with Social Security in sight, I actually wouldn't mind if a neighbor whispered some vocational advice in my ear. It's not that I lack for things to do. ... Inwardly, though, I'm as scattered and unfocused as a 16-year-old, and I suspect I'm not alone. ... I, for one, could use the services of a late-life guidance counselor. (Note: Full text of the Wall St. Journal is available, for a fee, at the above link.)

Managing A 'Mature' Work Force
[11 December 2002 - WashingtonPost.com - Robert J. Samuelson] I am what's now called a "mature worker," a new phrase with a bright future. It's one of those innocent-sounding euphemisms that clutter the language but seem unavoidable in an age when no one -- except TV and radio talking heads -- wants to offend anyone. When "mature" is attached to "worker," it means "older," generally somewhere north of 45. We older workers (I am 56) are becoming a glut on the market and, as a result, are an emerging social problem.

Retirement age 'will rise to 70 by 2030'
[11 December 2002 - FT.com - Tony Tassell] The official retirement age will climb to 70 by 2030 as pressure grows to close the widening pensions savings gap, UK pension funds believe. An annual survey of UK pension funds has shown the shift away from the traditional final salary retirement schemes accelerated sharply in 2002.

Britain's 'un-retired' workforce
[9 December 2002 - BBC] More than one in five retired Britons come out of retirement to go back to work, according to a survey. The study by British insurer Norwich Union suggests 22% of retired people over the age of 50 return to some kind of employment, be it full, part-time or voluntary. ... But it is not money that is tempting most pensioners back to the workforce, so much as social interaction and the desire to keep active.

Extra B vitamin may keep mind sharp in old age
[6 December 2003 - Reuters Health - By Alison McCook] Elderly people who get relatively low amounts of the B vitamin niacin in their diets may be more likely to develop Alzheimer's within the next few years than others, according to preliminary research. However, study author Dr. Martha Clare Morris of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois cautioned in an interview with Reuters Health that this is a very early finding, which needs to be confirmed by additional studies before the B vitamin can be linked to Alzheimer's.

Emory study finds most baby-boomers fall short of good health
[5 December 2002 - EurekAlert (American Association for the Advancement of Science)] Most baby-boomers are not aging well, and as they enter their golden years, the burden and cost of their health care will only increase according to a new Emory University study that found only one in five adults has good, comprehensive mental and physical health. Baby-boomers composed the largest demographic portion of the survey, and a majority of them fell within the "incompletely healthy" category, signaling that only a few are aging with their health intact, and many have the potential to develop serious illnesses, says Corey Lee Keyes, lead researcher and assistant professor of sociology at Emory. The study appears in the November/December issue of the "American Journal of Health Promotion."

MORI Poll shows why the Age Positive campaign is so important
[3 December 2002 - UK Department of Work and Pensions] New research from the MORI Social Research Institute reveals that ageism is the most common form of discrimination in the workplace. The research shows that 1 in 5 people have experienced some form of workplace discrimination and of those discriminated against, by far the biggest cause is age, which was cited by 38% of people. FINDINGS: One in five people (22%) have experienced some form of discrimination in the workplace. Of those almost two in five (38%) cite that it was due to their age - by far the biggest cause mentioned. Older workers are considered to be resistant to change and training and lacking technological skills, whilst younger workers are thought to be inexperienced, unreliable, irresponsible, more likely to throw 'sickies' and lacking organisational skills.

Job Search Behavior at the End of the Life Cycle
[December 2002 - Center for Retirement Research, Boston College - Hugo Benitez-Silva] This paper presents one of the first formal dynamic models of job search by older individuals. It also presents an empirical analysis of job search behavior among this population using the Health and Retirement Study. Several factors currently compound to make the topic of this research an important one in the agenda of the Economics of Aging: ongoing demographic, epidemiological, socio-economic, technological, and labor market trends indicate that older Americans are more likely to be labor force participants beyond traditional retirement ages. Increasing longevity, improving health, strong labor market conditions, increasing labor supply flexibility stemming from an increase in part-time work and self-employment and the use of technological advances to promote second careers, and increasing labor force participation, make the study of search behavior at the end of the life cycle, in a formal theoretical and empirical model, an important contribution. Our findings show that older Americans actively search for new jobs, both on the job and when out of work, and that previous work attachment and health limitations are key to understanding the different job search behavior of employed and non-employed individuals, as well as males and females.