|
Why US firms are desperate to retain ageing workers
 [BBC] When Roger Klug told his employer he was retiring, there was a shiver of panic among the bosses. Now 70 years old, Mr Klug is in his 47th year at Alexandria Industries, an aluminium company in rural Minnesota.After almost five decades manufacturing industrial products for such diverse industries as solar power and defence, the company could ill-afford to lose Mr Klug's expertise. Like a number of US states, Minnesota has a labour shortage - specifically a skills shortage - and seeing his valuable experience disappear overnight would have left Alexandria's management with big shoes to fill. According to the US Department of Labor, since March 2018 US monthly job vacancies have outnumbered unemployed job seekers. As the baby boomers reach retirement, it seems there are not enough millennials in the jobs pipeline ready to step in. "We have a labour shortage and it's going to be a problem for the next couple of decades as the boomers leave the workforce," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. So, one answer for companies struggling to find staff is to ask workers like Mr Klug to put off retirement. He did. Posted by: Besoeker 2019-08-20 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=548410 |