Get ready for another cutting edge article by an inspirational baby boomer expert,James O. Armstrong. 
 

Companies are beginning to make adjustments for older workers.  This is strictly a supply and demand issue.  In the United States, for example, we have approximately 78 million baby boomers, who are now in their early 40s to 62 years old; but, there are dramatically fewer Generation Xers coming up behind us.   

So, here is the issue:  How do we as a society encourage older men and women to stay in the workforce longer?  The way a company needs to operate is to show more flexibility.   

In this way, even someone after age 65, who is beginning to receive Social Security benefits, might choose to work two or three days each week, as a supplement to his Social Security benefits and/or his pension or 401(k) income. 

The shortage of workers in many categories 

There are many opportunities for my fellow baby boomers in our society.  For example, the United States is looking at an 800,000 shortage of registered nurses in the coming years.  Together with LPNs, this shortage will exceed a million nurses just in the United States.  Of course, as baby boomers begin to retire, they will increasingly require more medical care.   

There’s also a shortage of government workers.  Plus, our society doesn’t have enough engineers or scientists.  In addition, there’s a shortage of truck drivers, warehouse workers and certain types of manufacturing employees.  Further, we don’t have enough technology workers in our society either.   

Of course, many of these jobs require more education and/or training.  Overall, we also need to be flexible in terms of the jobs we’re willing to consider and do.  We also need to understand that a retail job pays 30% less than the national average.  On the other hand, men and women need to know that manufacturing jobs and especially advanced manufacturing pays 30% more than the national average.  So if you consider manufacturing dirty, for example, you need to rework your thinking because these are great jobs that pay well and provide excellent fringe benefits.   

Our economy is basically sound 

While these are challenging times, oftentimes the national media overstates the challenges we actually face.  For example, some members of the national press corps have been anticipating a recession in the U.S. and Canada for the last seven years, which has not yet materialized.   

Our economy in recent years in the U.S. has been a good one.  In fact, the economy in the first and second quarter of 2008 has actually grown vs. contracting.  Therefore, the classic definition of a recession, which equals two consecutive quarters of negative growth, has not materialized.   

But, most men and women watching the major television networks or reading big city daily newspapers think exactly the opposite.  These media outlets like to sensationalize a story on the negative side of the ledger, where they tend to focus on large companies which have laid off 2,000 or 3,000 people at a time.  Of course, the real story relates to the hundreds of thousands of companies, which are constantly adding jobs every day to their payrolls at the rate of two or three men/women as the need presents itself.   

That’s the real story in the economy, which comes from small and midsize companies adding jobs.  It’s not the giant companies that might have had a downsizing or reorganization effort recently.  Our society in the United States needs to get beyond this kindergarten level of economic coverage, which we so often receive from the major TV networks and the big city daily newspapers.   

Also, nearly 70% of the economy in the U.S. comes from consumer purchases.  We as consumers buy things because we’re confident.  On the other hand, when we’re not as optimistic, we don’t buy things.  Even regarding the subprime crisis in the United States, our nation is in the process of righting that excess.   

People say to me, “What caused the subprime crisis in the United States?”  What caused it was people that got into homes and condominiums that shouldn’t have gotten into them.  That’s what caused it.  You simply can’t have people moving into homes with no down payments and/or no credit checks.  Now, since we’re beginning to bottom out in residential housing in many markets in the United States, this is a great time to buy a house or a condominium.   

At this moment, the United States is not yet in a recession.  We have experienced a devaluation of housing in many markets because this sector in our economy has been overheated.  But this fact is just a part of the normal up and down cycle that takes place, whether it’s the stock market, housing or the financial community as a whole.   

The NowWhatJobs.net website has resources for you 

On our website, we believe that accurate information begins to take the place of our fears.  NowWhatJobs.net <a href=”http://www.nowwhatjobs.net“>http://www.nowwhatjobs.net</a> targets men and women, who are baby boomers and working seniors.  But, my website is especially designed to speak hope to my generation of fellow baby boomers and younger seniors, who are still actively engaged in the workforce.  In fact, your best days may be yet to come.   

Specifically, what I really wanted to share with our website visitors and readers was the professional insider information of a labor shortage in the U.S. and Canada and especially a skills shortage in both countries going forward vs. a labor surplus.   

In other words, if we begin to think differently, then our behavior pattern will change.   

I would urge people to check out the website, because there are so many different avenues that men and women can explore.  The website can help people explore options in logistics, manufacturing or healthcare careers.  With over 1,400 posted articles now on my website, men and women can check out information in 30 different categories. 

Finally, on the NowWhatJobs.net website, we have been fortunate to have excellent cooperation from approximately 200 other websites, which run the gamut from fellow baby boomers, active seniors and other interested individuals who have collectively chosen to help us accomplish our mission at our website.  In summary, there has been a mutual rowing of oars in the same direction because all of us are especially trying to help our fellow baby boomers in one way or another.    

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James O. Armstrong, President of NowWhatJobs.net, Inc., <a href=”http://www.nowwhatjobs.net“>http://www.nowwhatjobs.net</a>, also serves as the Editor of NowWhatJobs.net.  NowWhatJobs.net is the resource for job and career transitions for workers 40 years old and over, Baby Boomers and Active Seniors.  Read NowWhatJobs.net for skills training, relocation options, job opportunities and much more.  In addition, James is the author of “Now What?  Discovering Your New Life and Career After 50” and the President of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc., a media representation firm based in Suburban Chicago.