Older workers will continue to grow as part of the American workforce through the 21st Century, members of the U. S. senate have been told.

Tamara J. Erickson, executive officer and board member of The Concours Group, a highly-respected think tank, made the prediction last month in testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions. "We've just crossed an important crossover point," she said. "After a steady decline in the proportion of older workers through the 1990s, the percent is now on the rise."

The proportion of workers over age 55 declined from 18 percent in 1970 to 11 percent in 2000, Erickson told the committee. By 2015, however, this group will have rebounded to represent 20 percent of the labour force in the U.S.

"Fueled by ever-longer life expectancy and lower birth rates, older workers will continue to grow as a portion of the available labour pool throughout the century," she said. "We can't afford not to leverage this talent-our businesses will need both the numbers and, more importantly, the skills represented in this growing cohort."

Research shows that most mature employees are more satisfied and engaged, happier in the job and better adjusted to the workplace than average younger workers, Erickson said.

Many high skills areas, such as engineering disciplines, are already approaching critical shortages, she said. The average age of petroleum engineers in the U.S. is approaching 54, while many oil companies have lucrative early retirement programs that allow these scarce resources to leave the workforce at age 55.

"We are on the brink of critical shortages in a number of key skill areas, assuming retirement approaches remain unchanged." Erickson warned. At the same time, she pointed out new projections that show that 34 percent of all U.S. workers say then never plan to retire.

"For almost all of history until the early 1900s, people worked until they died," she said. "Today, the average American retires at 62 and, with rising life expectancies, can expect 20 or more years of active life. Over this century, we will retire the concept of 'retirement' as we know it today-to be replaced by a more flexible view of work, intermingled with periods of leisure throughout all of adulthood.

"As a result of increasing health and longevity, most individuals will experience a new life stage-a prolonged period of time after primary parenting duties [is] fulfilled, but before they will look, feel, or act 'old'."