News Release

Institute on Aging Hosts International Research Group on Older Workers

December 1, 2003

The Institute on Aging will host about fifty research team members of the "Workforce Aging in the New Economy" project (WANE) over the first weekend of December. The meeting brings leading experts on the aging of the workforce and its human resources, social and economic implications to Chapel Hill.

Investigators come from Australia, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and other parts of the United States. The WANE researchers are gearing up to conduct 16 case studies of companies in the information technology sector, which currently has a 'young' workforce but faces difficulties meeting future labor force needs as the baby boomers begin to leave the workforce and future cohorts to enter employment are smaller.

The case studies will be conducted in the US, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. The US Team, led by IOA director Victor Marshall, includes Joanne Marshall, Dean of the School of Information and Library Sciences at UNC, Charles Longino, Reynolda Professor at Wake Forest University, Melissa Hardy, Penn State University, and Neil Charness, Florida State University. Four case studies will be conducted by this group, three in North Carolina and one in Florida.

An overview of the research issues being addressed by the Workforce Aging in the New Economy Project will be presented at an open panel seminar on Thursday, December 4th from 3pm to 5pm. All are welcome, but space is limited so those interested in attending are asked to RSVP by December 1 to 919-843-2647. The panel presentation will be held in the Rosenfeld Conference Room at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

Panelists will include:

• Victor Marshall, Moderator
  Director, Institute on Aging, and Team Leader, USA, Workforce Aging in the New Economy (WANE Project)
• Julie McMullin, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, and Principal Investigator, WANE Project
• Libby Brooke, Swinburne University, Australia, and Team Leader, Australia, WANE Project
• Philip Taylor, Cambridge Interdisciplinary research Centre on Ageing,b University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Team Leader, United Kingdom, WANE Project

More information on the Workforce Aging in the New Economy (WANE) Project is available on the U.S. WANE web site and the International WANE web site.