THE AGING WORK FORCE: INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS WILL HAVE MORE OLDER WORKERS OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS

The graying of the Baby Boomer generation is resulting in an aging workforce.

The work force is a changing one, in Missouri, the United States and the world.

Industrialized nations will have more and more older workers over the next 20 years, as demands for those with skills increase.

The result, claims the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), could mean an end to some early retirement programs.

OECD officials estimate that the percentage of the workforce, age 50 to 59, will increase from about 20 percent early in the new century to as much as 32 percent through the year 2020.

Two decades will shove the present day's largest two employment groups -- 30-34 and 35-39 -- into the 50-59 category. The former two groups currently make up 18 to 21 percent of the average workforce in typical United States companies.

In the Southeast Missouri area, the 50-59 age distribution of workers could pass the 20,000 mark by 2020, up from its current 13,000 mark. This estimate is based on the 131,000 work force in nine area counties.

Included in the worker expectations are statistics which reveal that workers, 60 and over, could increase from 5 to 9 percent during the same span.

Nearly one in five people in the U.S. will be over age 60 by 2010. That translates into a total of more than 20 percent of workers in the older bracket (50-over).

Changes could be even more dramatic in other industrial countries, according to the Workforce Economic Trends report, which claims 29.8 percent of workers in Japan, 25.1 percent in Germany and 23.2 percent in the United Kingdom will be over age 60 by 2010.

The aging workforce is easy to explain. It is the product of the World War II baby boom, during which births more than doubled from the mid-1940s to the early 1960s. The family average during a 20-year era was six -- parents and four children.

By 1980, the birth rate had dropped to about two per family.

Also factored into the older worker boom is life expectancy, which has increased from an average of age 43 in 1900 to more than 75 today.

The 1970s-1980s "baby bust" has created reductions in the overall labor pool in the 25-40 age brackets.

Women have increased the workforce number, and now represent a 47 percent share of the United States workforce. Two decades ago, women represented about 40 percent of the nation's workforce, and by the year 2006, are expected to represent nearly 50 percent of the labor force.

In 1950, only 10 percent of women over age 65 were working. During the same year, 45 percent of men over 65 still had jobs.

That dropped over the next three and a half decades, to 16 percent of men over 65, and 7 percent of women over 65 still working.

A new survey, released only last week, claims that working couples are working more than they really want to.

The new study of two-career couples finds that the number of hours they spend on the job has risen substantially in the past two decades.

"People are working longer hours, and it's not because they want to," said Marin Clarkberg, a Cornell University researcher who presented the latest findings on the work-family time squeeze Friday, during a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Both sexes feel stressed by the competing demands of job and home. But in some ways, the situation can seem worse for women, said Clarkberg, because they often have to choose between working full time or not at all.

The reason: too few part-time jobs for women with families, and the ones that exist often pay poorly and do not offer health insurance or other benefits.

Clarkberg's research showed that actually, both men and women would often like to work something less than a standard 40- or 50-hour week.

Her results were based surveys of 4,554 married couples. They were questioned in 1988 and 1994 as part of the National Study of Families and Households.

"Employment Trends" is the topic of a report presented recently by Manpower International Inc., which delved into employment issues world wide, including the share of U.S. workforce by gender, the aging workforce, nationally and worldwide, and physical stress being experience by Japanese workers.

About 75 percent of Japanese workers feel physically and mentally tired, according to responses compiled by the Japanese Labor Ministry for the Manpower report. That's about 4.4 percent more than a similar report five years ago.

According to the 1997 survey of 13,200 Japanese workers, 17.2 were "very tired mentally," and 72 percent felt physically tired on the job. The introduction of computers and other high-tech products, as well as worries about possible bankruptcies and personnel cuts have caused Japanese workers more worry about their future.

In France, a system established by the Unemployment Insurance Agency, allow workers who have paid into the social security system 40 years to take early retirement at age 58, provided they are replace by younger workers.

In Germany, workers in small and medium-sized companies spend seven hours of their free time each month keeping up to date on work responsibilities, according to a survey of Bavarian firms.

British companies are also suffering from staff shortage, especially in managerial positions. And, in Canada, the unemployment rate has dropped from a high 11.9 percent in 1992, to about 8.1 percent now. Young workers in Canada say good jobs are scarce. Canadian youths are staying in school longer to improve their skills rather than chance their luck in the job market.

Exec-U-Net, a job recruiting company in Connecticut, reports that search times are longer for executives in the 56-40 age group.

Compared to the under-40 crowd, the job hunt for executives in the 41-45 age groups takes 18 percent longer. For the 46-50 age group, the search is 24 percent longer, and for the 51-55, 44 percent longer.

Exec-U-Net officials say "there is a perceived notion that an older candidate is not active and up-to-date enough in skills. Some company executives also fear that an older employee will have a hard time working for a boss younger than themselves."