Excellent article on the McKinsey Quarterly website (registration required) on aging baby boomers. For folks that have been following demographic trends and aging boomers there really is nothing new in the article, but it does a great job of summarizing a wide range of business issues related to aging boomers. Also, as is always the case with McKinsey Quarterly articles there is a whole lot of interesting data and analysis.
While the article covers a lot of ground, I focused on their assessment of boomers work and retirement plans. Key quote:
"Eighty-four percent of those we surveyed expected to work after they formally retired, and 63 percent said they couldn’t see themselves ever retiring completely. Our analysis also indicates that 60 percent of boomers will need to work just to maintain 80 percent of their current consumption and that more than 40 percent (29 million) will be working at age 65. That is twice the number of people from the silent generation who were working at the same age (14 million, or 30 percent). By 2015 more than one-third of the labor force will be over the age of 50."
The substantial increase in aging baby boomer workforce participation echos our research and forecasts (see The Changing Face of Entrepreneurs). While the McKinsey article focuses on what this means for employment at large corporations, our research indicates that many aging boomers will choose to form or work for small or personal businesses as they age.
Thanks for picking that up Steve. Good information, but give yourself credit, you saw it before they did. Tim.
Posted by: Tim Berry | November 30, 2007 at 04:21 PM