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Economy
Why US firms are desperate to retain ageing workers
2019-08-20
[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

#12  Roc on Star Trek TOS "Ohhhhhh. The Old Ones..."
Posted by: M. Murcek   2019-08-20 12:55  

#11  "Hell they'll just replace everybody with robots " , " Where are they going to get people who can , adjust, program, and repair robots. " Not too many millennials can do calculus these days.
Posted by: Flesing Wittlesbach3140   2019-08-20 12:27  

#10  Age discrimination. It's the law.
Posted by: Lex   2019-08-20 11:55  

#9  Other companies are illegally shedding workers over 50.

In the 'right-to-work' states they can magically declare a RIF. Locally, a firm that is self-insured and manages employee medical liability has introduced the unspoken 'disability RIF'. When the actuaries identify LTD candidates the company pushes the employees out onto Social Security Disability, and state unemployment.
Posted by: Skidmark   2019-08-20 11:55  

#8  Other companies are illegally shedding workers over 50.
Posted by: Iblis   2019-08-20 10:25  

#7  Sounds like wages need to go up.
Posted by: gorb   2019-08-20 10:21  

#6  Doesn't sound like an economy on verge of recession to me...

Yes. And when there isn't a recession before the 2020 election (just as the media had Swillary elected in 2016 and then that didn't happen) what will the "insurance policy" be?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2019-08-20 09:47  

#5  People who can read, do math, pass a drug test, show up in time every day and don't have tattoos up their necks and on their faces. Harder and harder to find nowadays...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2019-08-20 09:43  

#4  You nailed it DV! Senior are doing the jobs millennials won't do.
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-08-20 09:02  

#3  Too many millennial got worthless degrees and felt that the jobs that are needed were beneath them. Now the millennials have worthless jobs, crushing debt and are crying for socialism to save them from their mistakes of ego.
Posted by: DarthVader   2019-08-20 08:55  

#2  Doesn't sound like an economy on verge of recession to me...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-08-20 08:41  

#1  As long as business treat employees as bottom line costs and not as assets, they don't deserve consideration. Those that refuse to spend on employee training because its a cost not an investment can go without. Nothing stops employers from signing contracts that trade training for a set time of employment to retain a ROI. When you treat them all as replaceable cogs in the machine you put yourself into that position of making some people irreplaceable. The problem is cemeteries are filled with irreplaceable people.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-08-20 07:49  

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