News Release

International Research Group on Older Workers Meets in North Carolina

December 18, 2003

The Institute on Aging hosted about fifty research team members of the "Workforce Aging in the New Economy" project (WANE) from December 4-7. The meeting brought leading experts on the aging of the workforce and its human resources, social and economic implications to Chapel Hill.

Investigators from Australia, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and other parts of the United States spent three full days working out both methodological and substantive issues related to the cross-national case study design. WANE is scheduled to begin field and survey work of companies in the information technology sector (IT) by mid-summer.

The WANE project seeks to understand the interplay between ongoing demographic transitions (specifically workforce aging) in the global labor force and the situation of the IT companies and their IT workers. IT currently has a 'young' workforce and is likely to face difficulties, in many developed countries, meeting future labor force needs as the baby boomers begin to leave the workforce and future cohorts to enter employment are smaller. Findings from this project will inform the development of solutions to these challenges of an aging workforce.

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. Several case studies will be conducted by this group, with most being done in North Carolina but some in Florida.

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.