About the Interest Group on the Aging Workforce

For the academic year 2008-2009, the Interest Group seminars will focus on a range of issues related to the aging workforce including workforce succession planning, the loss of knowledge in organizations, the experiences of older workers in the labor force, work-family issues, elder caregiving programs, and intergenerational relations in the workplace. Our group includes people from several Departments and Schools at UNC-Chapel Hill and other NC Universities, several departments of State Government, and the corporate sector.

Past meetings have featured presentations and discussions of "Contemporary Aging Workforce Issues", "Workforce and Succession Planning" and "Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining Older Workers", all with a focus on North Carolina.

For information about upcoming meetings, see our events calendar. We welcome your participation, and our meetings are free and open to the public. If you would like to attend, please contact Diane Wurzinger at the Institute at diane_wurzinger@unc.edu or call 919-843-2647 no later than the Friday preceding each meeting.

FYI about Older Workers

The "older worker" age category (45-64) is currently expanding at a more rapid rate than the "old" category of 65 plus. Meanwhile, age 65 is increasingly important as a marker of retirement due to the elimination of mandatory retirement and the decline in the average age of retirement. There are important social policy issues regarding older workers and the transition to retirement, such as the issue of age discrimination in employment or how older workers can be encouraged to remain in the work force to meet human resources needs for trained workerst. And there important personal issues, such as feelings of insecurity as workers see extensive downsizing and restructuring in their workplace, the extent to which older workers are given opportunities for continuing training and the best ways to provide training to older workers, or how older workers may balance work and family obligations. Retirement itself is also a key issue. Economic and psychological well-being, in retirement, is influenced by prior work patterns. Men and women are seeking new patterns of retirement that increasingly involves continuing part-time work.