 | |||||||||||||
|  |
3rd Careers HOT TOPICS is a weekly email newsletter that features news items, issues and ideas concerning the mature workforce. If you would like a Free Subscription to this newsletter, Click Here. | |||||||||||
|
3rd Careers HOT TOPICS Week Ending Dec. 30, 2005 - Vol. 1, No.2
If these predications are correct, how might they impact you? IN THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ARENAS… Defined pension plan reform will happen (somewhat) as planned - but may not include (in 2006) the change in regulations that currently link pension plan payments to the last 3-5 years of employment to a new model that does not penalize individuals (in defined pension sponsored organizations) from accepting voluntary phased retirement services. There will be increased costs to employers in order to guarantee payments - many of these costs will be viewed as prohibitive. Pension Plan offerings by employers will continue to decline. Medicare will be running $65+ trillion short and Social Security $10+ trillion short in terms of 2006 net value. These are subjects that should find themselves "back on the politicians' table" during the year. But, while I think the chatter will increase because outside interests will push the discussion, I don't think we will have the belly for actually making any changes to either of these programs until the next U.S. President is in office. So…I am actually taking the prediction for changes to these programs "off the shelf" for 2006! The states that still offset unemployment benefits to social security recipients who have lost their full-time jobs (through no fault of their own) will join the other 39 states that have eliminated this penalty. Watch the 1.8 million AARP members in Pennsylvania lead the way to making this happen in 2006. The proportions of American workers with high school diplomas and college degrees will continue to decrease. Organizations will begin to subsidize boomers, as well as much older workers, for this contribution as they seek to hire and develop a smaller, highly diverse generation of workers for their firms. The baby boomer generation - the most highly educated generation in American history - will step into the fray and respond to the call to help. There will be a particular interest on the part of these boomers in helping to close educational gaps among racial/ethnic groups and others in America in order to bring them into the competitive mainstream. Personal income will continue to decline in places like California and New York where the cost of living will remain high. One reason is because struggling baby boomers will have to push, and push hard, to stay in the workforce albeit at lower wages than their once full-time careers provided and, as one result, temporary agencies will boom! Net-savvy teenagers will bring more and more mature adults into the world of the Internet by helping us to improve our technical "user" skills. (See EarthLink's GenerationLink, a classroom-based initiative that enlists high school students to teach mature adults how to use the Internet and, at the same time, encourages a connection between teens and the first wave of 60+ baby boomers and older constituents.) Go to: www.scholastic.com/generationlink. We will experience the acceleration of a mass exodus from certain high cost-of-living states as mature workers seek to "cash-out" of their homes while the real estate market is still hot. Places like Boston will lose young and old to issues of affordability. The Sun Belt and certain Western States will grow faster than ever. Only the heartland of America will continue to be relatively untouched by the mass migration south and west. Society and the workforce itself will be challenged to replace these lost consumers and workers. Expect a big U.S.A. boom in B2B partnerships with Australian and New Zealand businesses. Experienced and mature leaders will head these partnerships in order to open new Australasian frontiers. Count on big advances in health care software, prevention related drugs and new treatments for hypertension specifically developed to benefit our maturing nation. IN THE WORKPLACE… Phased retirement will become an exciting retention strategy in many private-sector firms. Spherion will enjoy a featured employer role with AARP by mid-year and they will achieve national recognition as the most highly visible emergent workforce experts in the area of 3rd Careers. Employers will continue cutting or canceling retiree health insurance benefits and, as one result, more mature workers will be forced to return to some form of work. A majority of employers will offer consumer-directed health plan benefits of particular benefit to mature workers whose needs often differ than those of younger workers in their "family years." Likewise, post-tax, 100 percent participant-paid, long-term care insurance will arrive front and center among benefit options for boomers. Employers will increase their use of the contingent workforce across all bandwidths of experience. Re-hirement job banks will be created. The new practice of hiring through "on-line auctions" will begin to go mainstream, taking their clue from a few forward thinking health care institutions. Look for more merger & acquisition activity, more off-shoring, more divestitures of non-core lines of business in U.S. based organizations. Outsourcing, insourcing and shared sourcing will boom! IN THE WORKFORCE ITSELF… Many, many people will come to realize that the best path to financial success will not be through the stock market but through education. Boomers will return to school (both virtual and live) in droves and the average age for students in institutions offering higher education will reflect this fast-growing trend. New careers will be forged in the entrepreneurial and small business world for boomers by boomers. It's not to say that youth-oriented goods and services will be ignored, it's that we won't be! Opportunity is knocking for mature entrepreneurs to catch the crest of this wave in 2006. "Free Agency" will continue to grow as a career option across all groups of workers. Mature workers, who once simply pursued regular jobs, or worked in careers that no longer exist or whose demands are so materially changed that the jobs do not exist for them, will embrace free agency in 2006. Other senior level contributors will specialize in one or two areas of deep level expertise. They will float into and out of the workplace based on achieving and sustaining "guru" status in areas of high marketplace need. This group will be paid on value received - not time spent! Volunteerism "with a twist" will become commonplace and mature workers will flock to help America regain bench strength. Here's the twist. A broader array of volunteer organizations will subsidize basic expenses (travel, mileage, etc.) for workers who volunteer their time to help in a myriad of social causes. Working longer, especially at something meaningful, will become the hot new cause for the generation that invented causes! Own the cause. Prepare once again to compete for the future and to change destiny- there's a lot of fun ahead if you do! Career Coaches will take their place beside Financial Coaches as part of a strategy by serious careerists to ensure that their work lives actually support and achieve their financial and life goals. | |||||||||||||
© 2006 Cambridge Media, LLC All Rights Reserved Info@AgelessInAmerica.com Updated 1/17/06 | |||||||||||||
