When Obama announced his
huge plans for having a trained work force in America last week, we asked our
visitors to tell us their ideas for improving the job market. One set of ideas
focused on the challenges facing older workers who face some unique challenges
in finding new work.
According to a Voice of America
article, “With U.S. unemployment at a 25 year high, older workers say it's
becoming increasingly difficult to compete for jobs against younger
counterparts. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says workers ages 45 and above are
staying unemployed longer, about 22 weeks compared to 16 weeks for younger
workers. Although many of the so called "baby boomers," [born between
1946 and 1964] are now in the prime of their careers, many have to confront age
bias in a dismal job market.”
In Washington State, they are finding “State
projections show that 15,000 students will enroll in Washington’s community college retraining
programs starting this fall, more than double the head count from two years
ago. Two out of
three students getting retraining in
have already turned 35,” says an article in HeraldNet.
So
what can be done?
Here are some good ideas from the WebEx
community – ideas that change the way we might think about our “older”
workforce.
Idea #1: Create a Senior Academy
Ed Wurster of Voorhees, USA, suggests rewarding
companies for retaining senior workers as company instructors, who pass on
valuable skills to younger workers and teach the unemployed. (Comment on Ed’s
idea here).
Idea #2: Create a plan for senior
workers that allows for them to “modify” their jobs rather than face layoffs.
Rococo from Campbell, California thinks we shouldn’t layoff senior
workers – what a mistake – we should develop a system that moves them to a
position that allows them to transfer knowledge, train new employees and add
value. This should include honest discussions of salary. If a senior worker is
“expensive” but incredibly capable, it is crazy to fire that person to save
money. Businesses need to think about ways to renegotiate their employment
agreements and use older workers to help their companies succeed. (Comment on
Rococo’s idea here.)
Idea #3: Get generations to work
together to learn new skills.
SantaCruzMom from Santa Cruz, California says the older
generations know the basic principles of business but less about technology,
the web and social media. The younger generation understands all the tools but
don’t understand business. Bring the generations together to get them to
collaborate and work together to train one another. (Comment on SantaCruzMom’s
idea here.)
It’s not too late to share
your ideas with us.
We are working to share them with the Obama Administration
as well and leaders in the community who are looking for ways to create new
jobs and revitalize our economy. We are also inviting guests to speak on the
topic. If you know someone who would like to lead a discussion on older
workers, retraining or something similar, please reply (via commenting) to this
blog.
