need to speak to early retirees

[BUM]

The evil ER's are the reason the country can't grow.

Everybody grab your paper hats and get back to work! :

 

[SteveR]

OK early retirees, it's all your fault:

Retirements Keep Labor Market Tight, Fed on Inflation Alert

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aOiv3YRk3qnM&refer=us

"What matters for the economy, though, is the sheer number of baby boomers who will retire. The participation rate among 55-to- 64 year olds is about 20 percentage points lower than among 45- to-54 year olds, and the generation is adding millions to the over-55 ranks every year.

Over the next decade, the participation rate will fall below 65 percent, slowing the growth of the labor force to 0.7 percent a year from a historical rate of 1.6 percent, the Congressional Budget Office projected in a Jan. 26 report. That will retard the pace at which the economy can expand without accelerating inflation to 2.8 percent from a historical rate of 3.4 percent, CBO says.

Work-force participation rose steadily for five decades after 1948, when 59 percent of Americans were in the labor force. As women increasingly took jobs outside the home, that level rose, most sharply between 1970 and 1990, when it approached 67 percent. With population growth, that expanded the pool of Americans available for work to 126 million from 82 million.
Beginning with the 2000-2001 recession, the participation rate's increase slowed, then reversed. Fewer women joined the workforce, while a long-term decline in the number of working teenagers accelerated.

The proportion of women in the workforce peaked at 60.3 percent in 2000 after rising steadily from less than a third in 1948. Since 2000, the rate has slipped to 59.2 percent.

The percentage of young people ages 16 to 19 in the workforce peaked at 59.3 percent in 1978 and slid to 52 percent by 2000. Since then, the rate has plummeted to 44 percent, as more teenagers stay in school.

Now, the decline in workforce participation is about to accelerate as baby boomers reach the age where some will choose early retirement, economists say. "


You guys need to get back to work or the economy is going down the drain.

How dare you not keep working until you drop for all those great jobs being created.

Oh, and get all those lazy teenagers and women back to work too. You guys are screwing up the profits of the money lenders economy.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that many baby boomers either dont retire or retire very late. Those that do, many will go back to work.

The spendaholic nature of the beast is hard to stop.

 

[Outtahere]

I have to agree with you there CFB, most everyone I know in my age range has little or no savings (or they aren't talking about "it"), a couple have city/federal pensions but the others are SOL.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

My wife regularly sees retired doctors "come back" after 5-8 years. They say they just got bored. Pretty obvious they were running out of money and couldnt stop spending. Same thing happened with my dentist. He employs several helpers, and his most recent was a guy who retired 10 years ago and then came back. I'm going to guess he was in his early to mid 70's. First question he asked me was "Have any hobbies?". Which turned out to be his segue to tell me about the several airplanes he owns, his son the surgeons new ferrari and $5M home, the mid five figure vacations the whole family takes together, etc.

Welcome back to work buddy...

 

[REWahoo]

More evidence of how we're hurting the economy? (I feel soooo guilty... )

Worldwide 'talent shortage' seen by employers
Survey shows that 40% of companies looking for workers having trouble finding qualified candidates.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/21/news/international/jobs_manpower.reut/index.htm

 

[Nords]

Survey shows that 40% of companies looking for workers having trouble finding qualified candidates.

Pffffft-- that says more about the quality of the companies (and their employee benefits) than the quality of the workers.

 

[brewer12345]

Pffffft-- that says more about the quality of the companies (and their employee benefits) than the quality of the workers.

Yeah, I smell BS. Labor force participation rates are well below their peak. Why? Its not because there aren't jobs available...

 

[Cut-Throat]

Yeah, I smell BS. Labor force participation rates are well below their peak. Why? Its not because there aren't jobs available...

Yup! - I know plenty of skilled of software engineers that are looking for work. An electrical engineer that I went to school with got laid off from IBM (Age 52) and is now driving a truck to make ends meet.

 

[SteveR]

The job market here is a tough one to find qualified candidates who can walk and chew gum at the same time. Most of what we get don't want to work, don't have the education required, or fail the drug screening or backround checks.

Technical and professional positions are the most difficult to fill because of our high experience and education requirements due to the needs of the industry and the very tight regulatory climate we operate within. We just don't have many people applying for our professional positions and some have been open for months. Part of it is the narrow focus of this industry and the lack of other similar type products in the area and the other is the general location; major city but isolated from other cities of similar size. That limits our potential market for qualified candidates. And then there is the "social" climate of the area.

Our other manufacturing operations in different parts of the country are seeing the same kinds of issues with having a very difficult time finding qualified drug free people with no felony records and no credit problems (we make controlled substances so DEA requires heavy screening of potential employees). The market in some jobs may be flooded with people but it does not appear to be true in all industries. The jobs are out there....you just have to look at areas you might not have considered before.

 

[Outtahere]

The job market here is a tough one to find qualified candidates who can walk and chew gum at the same time.  Most of what we get don't want to work, don't have the education required, or fail the drug screening or backround checks. 

Without going into detail I have the same problem finding qualified candidates for positions here. Even once they pass the initial pre employment drug testing they sometimes later fail the random testing we do year round.

 

[justin]

The market in some jobs may be flooded with people but it does not appear to be true in all industries. The jobs are out there....you just have to look at areas you might not have considered before.

I think some of the techies/software engineers grew accustomed to extremely high wages regardless of qualifications during the dot.com era. $60,000 for a dude with a 3 week computer training school certificate and a couple of certifications? No prob! When can you start?!?! IBM circa 1999.

Now the wage rates are starting to get back down to earth (comparable to other highly skilled occupations with similar educational requirements).

If a software engineer with a couple years experience is looking to make $150,000 per year today, that may explain the lack of "acceptable" employment opportunities. Half that amount and you'll see a lot more opportunities appear.