Labor Shortages Are Predicted: ‘Encore Careers’ May Be Solution

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For a s week, from September 19 through 26, is National Employ Older Workers Week. The week long observance celebrates the contributions of America’s older workforce and recognizes the benefits of hiring these experienced workers. A recent white paper focusing on the older workforce suggests that they consider “encore careers” instead of retiring.

The United States, along with the rest of the world, is still in the throes of a major recession, with an unemployment rate close to 10 percent. But according to a new white paper, by 2018, with an expected return to healthy economic growth and with no change in current U.S. labor force participation rates or immigration rates, there will likely be more jobs than people to fill them.
History shows that after a recovery from a recession, labor shortages typically follow, explains “After the Recovery: Help Needed,” written by Barry Bluestone and Mark Melnik of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University. The authors note that the best example is the early 1940s (coming after the Great Depression). They expect a similar labor shortage after recovery from the current recession.                                                                                   
 
 
                                                                                                        SANCHITA GUPTA
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