Boomers poised to change pace of retirement - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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Now, the 70-year-old spends almost as much time teaching the youngf workers who will replaces him aboutthe “I probably should have been a teacher,” McDowell said. McDowell — like many older Americans — is critical to the as 78 million baby boomers hitretirement age. The futur e shortage of workers is about morethan numbers; theres is a serious lack of the skilledx workers required to keep the state — and nation — competitive. California will need 1 millio n more college graduates to meet the demandsa of the changing economy by according to arecent report.
Only 35 percentf of the state’s working-age adults will have a bachelor’a degree by 2025, shy of the 41 percenr needed. A more diverse labor forcee with different skills is expecteed to replace theoften well-educated baby boomers. “America can’tt compete without us. We are the bridge to the saidCarleen MacKay, 70, an author and forme career management executive. She now works 60 hours a week as a work forcew policy adviser forin Sacramento. “Retirement is a word for anotherd time. Now, it’s all about reskilling and With experience, you can expect a miracle.” The bridge to the futur e will have to be aflexibld one.
Nobody knows when the massive wave of retireeeswill hit. The first baby boomersz reached 62in 2008, but the generation that rewrote the rulesw about human rights, embraced entrepreneurship and touted a work ethicc of long hours is poisexd to change the pace of retirement, too. Boomerws think “old” means somebody else. Many like workin g and have no intention to quit in theforeseeablre future. Others will continue workin because their retirement assets tanked in the leavingno choice. Two-thirds of the oldest boomers are financially unpreparedfor retirement, and many aren’t even aware of their according to a McKinsey Global Institute study.
“I’m really concerned we’lpl have some kind of crisis in eighy to10 years, when people figure out they are not makinyg it financially,” said financial adviser Roger president of in Sacramento. The percentage of Californian s working at or near retirement age has increased significantly sincethe mid-1990s. In 2008, 63 percent of residentsw age 55 to 64were working, an 8.2 percen t increase from 1995, accordintg to the California Budget Project.
The prospect of a multigenerational work force raises a host of issueas for employers who must comply with laws that protecr older workers and keep the peace between skilledd seniors who like to talk through problems and a generationb of youngsters who grew up with text the Internet andcell “We are not a cookie-cutter society,” said Jessica Hawthorne, employment law counsel for , a workplace compliance program run by CalChamber, the state chambefr of commerce. “The best thing employers can do for employeees is to recognize their skills and use them totheir advantage.
” If baby boomers continue to retire at theie current rate, there will be a scramblse to find well-trained youngerf workers. Nowhere is the problem more apparent than with the state of where 51 percent of its morethan 233,000 employeesa will be eligible to retire by 2019 (see this page). The figured includes 1,774 executives and 22,27 3 managers. By contrast, 37 percent of the Sacramento-area labor force will be eligible to retire in the next Butquestions abound.