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[12 December 2002 - The Economist] The idea of retiring at 65 is astonishingly out-of-date.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.