Our clients are worried about the coming “tsunami” of workforce retirements. Baby Boomers are queuing up for the exits, and with their departures they take invaluable knowledge about how to perform work effectively and efficiently. The people entering the workforce operate under a new behavioral model. Large-scale disruptive change is in the air.

In this post we will write about the projections for the workforce of the future. In upcoming posts we will write about the implications of those changes and how organizations are acting in the near term to address the implications.

In November 2007, The Bureau of Labor Statistics published their Labor Force Projections to 2016 with the sub-headline, “more workers in their golden years.” The phrase is an understatement.

 

In the ten years between 2006 and 2016,

  • The 16-24 year old workforce will shrink 0.7% per year or nearly 7% over the ten-year period.
  • The 25-54 year old workforce will expand 0.2% per year – or 2.4% over the ten-year period.
  • The 55 and older workforce will expand 3.9% per year – or more than 46% over the ten-year period.

 

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