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| NEC › Initiatives › New England Commission on Older Workers | ||
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New England Commission on Older WorkersAs the baby boom generation enters the pre-retirement and retirement age, New England employers will become increasingly dependent on “older workers”, those aged 55 and above to meet their human resource requirements. The ability to retain these older workers in the labor force is critical to the long term economic prosperity of the region. Their skills and abilities will be critical in creating economic growth and income. Yet, at both the federal and state levels, a set of retirement and other related labor market policies are now in place that may reduce the potential level of labor supplied by those aged 55 and above. Pension policies that limit workers ability to mix work and retirement income, workforce development programs that don’t serve older workers and workplaces poorly organized to accommodate an older workforce all contribute to reducing the potential supply of labor from this valuable source. The New England Council has responded to this critical labor supply challenge by organizing the New England Commission Older Workers. Chaired by Jim McCaffrey of Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the Commission will bring together top business, academic, government and civic leaders to examine how to alter existing federal and state policies so they encourage older workers to stay active in the job market and to help firms organize work in a way that best accommodates the needs of this critical segment of the region’s labor supply. On November 15, 2006, the Commission hosted its first hearing in Portland, Maine. Subsequent meetings have already taken place in Nashua, NH, Providence, RI, Hartford, Connecticut, western Massachusetts and Vermont. Each meeting follows the same structure: new projections of labor force growth in each state are released including projected changes in the age distribution of those supplying labor, along with other research findings on older workers. Leaders from business, academia and government then participate in a facilitated roundtable discussion, lead by Dr. Paul Harrington, Associate Director of Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies, our partner in this program and the author of the studies released at each meeting. The purpose of the roundtable is to engage the participants in a discussion about their views of alternative efforts to encourage strong labor force attachment among aged 55 and above. This series will continue with a meeting in Boston, Massachusetts in December 2007. We will conclude this phase of our work by hosting a major regional conference on this topic at which time the Council will release a “white paper” outlining the issues and recommending policy changes.Newsletters: |
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