7 Reasons Not to Retire, Part 2

Here's part 2 of a series from US News and World Report that gives seven reasons you shouldn't retire. Today's reason:

The economy may face a shortage of qualified workers.

Their summary of this issue:

The demographic issue cuts two ways. First are all those boomers who started hitting the Big Six-O this year. They're good customers. So it doesn't hurt to have employees of a similar age in customer-service positions.

Companies aren't just worried about having enough workers who can relate to graying customers. Firms are worried about having enough workers, period. The annual growth rate of the workforce is expected to slow to 0.4 percent by 2010. That will be a huge drop-off from the 1.1 percent average annual increase of the 1990s. Rand economist Lynn Karoly says the slowing rate of workforce growth is caused primarily by a sharp decline in the birthrate after the baby boom. "Employers will begin seeing more competition in terms of filling their employee ranks," Karoly says, "especially for highly skilled workers."

It's funny that this article mentions Home Depot as a pioneer in hiring older workers. I was just in a Home Depot store last week and asked one of their clerks (an older guy) a few questions. As he was giving me exactly what I needed to know, I was thinking "Man, this guy knows a lot -- he's probably done this for years and knows all the do's and don'ts -- what a great resource." And he was a great resource -- I found exactly what I wanted and knew exactly what to do with it (which is not always the case when I leave Home Depot). :-)

A few days later, were at Home Depot again, this time buying a grill. Another older guy helped us out and he knew everything about every grill. Why? He'd probably purchased most of them in the 40 years that he's been grilling. ;-) Anyway, he was very helpful as well.

I own stock in Home Depot (HD) and am glad they are hiring older workers. The knowledge these people have is something very valuable -- especially in the home improvement market -- and this is a way Home Depot can distinguish themselves from their competition.

All that said, there is one profession where I don't like elderly advice -- medical doctors.  I had an experience one time as a teenager with a doctor who was about 134 years old -- I think he studied medicine during the Civil War. Anyway, let's just say his medical knowledge was less than that of the average grade school nurse in a Third World country. I attempted to introduce him to something new we had called ELECTRICITY (his office was hot and dark), but this guy was stuck in the early 1900's -- and his medical skills showed it. Never again. I like doctors in their 40's or 50's. They've been around long enough to have some great experience but not so long ago that medical school (and subsequent education) has been purged from their memories.

Click here to read part 3 in this series.

Click here to read part 1 of this series.

Comments

[traineeinvestor]

Interesting, but it seems to me that this is a reason why employers would not want older workers to retire - they need them. However, the fact that there is demand for older workers (or any workers) is not a reason for electing to keep working.

[Joseph G.]

Another area where youth should be a positive deciding factor: Optometrists!