Sans teeth, sans work

If you don’t read the Economist you should. Make a start and buy this week’s edition and read its leading article about the aging workforce.

We all know that marketers have ignored the demographic shift to older consumers. Employers, which is just about all companies and departments of Government, have been equally myopic by ignoring the deluge of people about to retire – say their final farewells and disappear – well at least from their current employer.

This is how the Economist’s article begins:

The baby-boom generation, which started to turn 60 this year, contains the largest number of people ever voluntarily to give up work in such a short time. Because it is far larger than the generation that follows it—or any that preceded it—it casts a shadow over the companies it is set to leave behind. Japan expects its workforce to shrink by 16% (some 10m people) over the next 25 years. Europe will see the number of workers nearing retirement grow by a quarter. Some companies are already complaining of a shortage of skills, even before they have started to dole out carriage clocks and fountain pens by the barrow-load.

Dick Stroud