Ceridian takes a very ‘doom and gloom’ view of the impact of the aging population on corporate employment.
The core of the argument is that the sandwich generation – those who are squeezed between responsibilities for young children and elderly parents – is going to grow larger and be squeezed harder. This, argues the report, will be bad news for employers. I think it could be brilliant news for other parts of business.
The only real facts/forecasts in the report are that:
One in four employees – equally men and women – provide on average more than 11 hours of informal, unpaid care per week for an older parent or relative.
There are approx 4 million carers in the UK combining work and care; by 2037 the number of carers could rise to 9.1 million.
By 2006, women are expected to make up 56% of the UK workforce, implying that increasingly men will have responsibility for looking after elderly parents.
The last thing that many older people want is to be a ‘burden’ on their children and are likely to spend a lot of money making sure this doesn’t happen.
What amazed me was the supply of new purpose built homes for older people is so small –only 3,000 units are built a year. Another astonishing and depressing fact is that only 6.5% of local councils have an explicit planning policy for the over 65s.
The market for extending the independence of older people is going to be huge and from these few facts not being targeted. Dick Stroud: www.20plus30.com
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