The number of working older Americans has quadrupled since the 1980s and statistics show that trend isn’t cooling down as the nation’s workforce shortage heats up.
Oklahoma’s labor participation rate of 52 available workers for every 100 jobs dovetails a nationwide trend. Employers are looking harder than ever for their next workers and statistics show that includes the senior workforce.
According to a Pew Research report last year, the burgeoning elder workforce is driven by those aged 65 and older, the last century’s largest population boom. By 2030, the labor force of those aged 75 and older is expected to grow by 96.4%, while those aged 16-24 which is forecasted to shrink by 7.5%, according to the nonprofit Center for Workforce Inclusion, formerly the National Council for Senior Adults.
Beset by the rising cost of living, Medicare copay increases and zero or shrinking retirement funds, more seniors are choosing to delay, supplement or abandon retirement.
The trend is not surprising to 62-year-old Joyce Lindberg. The Oklahoma transplant was forced to sell her West Coast restaurants due to illness and moved here to be near family. Her health in tatters, depression set in as life in a wheelchair extinguished her optimism for the future.
“I woke up one day and said, ‘I’m done with this,’” Lindberg said. “I went on an investigation to find out how can I get back to work. I don’t care what it is, but I’ve got to do something.”
She worked hard to ditch her wheelchair for a walker and/or cane, and found a new career thanks to a federal program that puts older Americans back to work.
Today, one of Lindberg’s jobs is a supportive services coordinator for senior programs through the Association of South Central Oklahoma Governments.
Often she encounters seniors struggling with the gap between social security benefits and the cost of living.
“You go to the grocery store and what used to be $50 is now $100,” Lindberg said. “With Medicare going up to $174.90, you know, that’s a big chunk coming out of seniors’ income every month.”
A federal program helped her gain the skills and income she needed to rejoin the workforce. The Senior Community Service Employment Program pairs low income seniors with on-the-job, paid training with nonprofit or government employers. While working, they learn computer skills, new phone systems and other technologies that weren’t required during their employment years, Lindberg said. Why hire seniors?
Seniors often return to work to stay active, keep their minds sharp and have a social outlet, Lindberg said. She also said employers are finding out that hiring older workers pays off.
“In my experience older people are trainable, very trainable,” Lindberg said. “We are very reliable. We don’t have kids. We have the social skills, and I’m not being hateful, but some in the younger generation...there’s just a totally different mindset.”
The reliability of the senior workforce in Oklahoma is high, said Larry Bartels, field representative for the SCSEP via the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
Seniors and employers are tracked by the department to offer follow up assistance and gauge their success. The surveys show older workers are “more reliable,” Bartels said.
“They miss less work, they come to work on time and those are just a few benefits for employers,” he said.
Seniors who have struggled to gain new skills and find an employer to take a chance on them are more grateful and have more to lose than workers have other options, he said.
Technology is the most common barrier to employment for those with a long gap since their last job, said Jeromy Buchanan, director of Community Living, Aging and Protective Services for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
“A lot of the training they want is stuff like Outlook and Excel,” Buchanan said. “Those programs, they just don’t have experience with it. They may have experience with Gmail or Yahoo, but those may be the only computer skills they have.” Things to consider Employers who are interested in hiring older Americans should take care not to run afoul of age discrimination laws, which prohibits hiring or firing employees based on age.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 protects workers age 40 and older from hiring discrimination and harassment on the job.
Employment attorney, Frank Frasier, who serves the Lawton area, said the wording of advertisements and job descriptions is important.
“If you think a senior might be a good fit, then keep that in the back of your mind. If you’re going to put (the job) on Facebook or Indeed or something like that then I would make it very broad. Seniors, disabled and minorities are welcome to apply.”
As long as the wording is inclusive and hiring practice is not exclusionary, an employer can make the job opening known in places seniors might be looking, such as publications they read, Frasier said.
Employers have a right to expect an employee to perform the job, but Frasier said choosing to terminate an employee because of their age is a violation of their rights.
“You simply can’t say, ‘well you know, you’ve got this bad hip’ or ‘you’re arthritic or you’re too slow,’” he warned.
“If they’re not doing their work, that would be grounds for termination.”
Employers should also keep an open mind when it comes to the requirements of the job if they’re interested in attracting applicants, including older Americans, said Erin Glass, business services manager for South Central Oklahoma Workforce Board. The board works with job seekers and employers to put more residents to work through free resources, including training and the job posting site, Okjobmatch.com.
The board encourages employers to shift to skillsbased hiring instead of only education or specific years of experience to qualify an applicant. The requirement of five years on the job means someone who is qualified but has only four year experience often does not apply to negotiate for the position, Glass said.
“We’re still seeing a lot of ‘must have bachelors’ and sometimes it will say, ‘or relevant experience,’ but really and truly we push skillsbased hiring,” Glass said.
She also said employers should be willing to “upskill” new recruits of any age through the board’s incumbent worker training program. The board pays 90% of the cost to train employees for employers with fewer than 50 employees.
Editor’s note: This is the third installment in a series on the state’s labor shortage that explores untapped workforce pools.