More Workers Over Age 55 Expected To Remain In Workforce

September 12, 2008 2:31 p.m. EST

Cleveland, OH (AHN) - Workers over the age of 55 will comprise a larger share of workers in coming years in Ohio, and around the country.

That is because more workers over the age of 55 are expected to stay in the workforce.

And employers need to prepare to accommodate older workers and to benefit from the experience and range of attributes they bring to the job, according to a report released this month by Miami University's Scripps Gerontology Center.

In Ohio, the proportion of older workers in the state's workforce is expected to rise from 16.7 percent to 22.4 percent from 2006 to 2016, which is an increase of 34 percent during that 10-year period. Nationwide that number is projected to increase by 47 percent in that time.

• Two-thirds of Ohioans age 55 to 64 are expected to be in the state's workforce in 2016.
• Roughly 20 percent of Ohioans age 65 and older are expected to be in the state's workforce in the year 2016.
• By 2016, two-thirds of all job openings in Ohio are expected to be for positions replacing retirees.

There are several factors that affect the number of older workers who remain in the workforce.

Unlike earlier generations, workers approaching retirement now often began working after employers ended pension plans - with the exception of people employed by government entities, which do have pensions.

That has left the majority of Americans to save for their retirement on their own.

Some people who did save have found that stock market losses have eroded the value of their 401-K plans, so they no longer have enough money to retire on. Other people haven't saved enough money to begin with, and still other people never earned enough to have anything left over after paying basic bills to save for retirement.

Another factor in whether people will retire or not is that, unlike previous generations who were guaranteed employer-based health insurance after retirement, many people working now do not have access to health insurance if they retire.