Older Workers to the Rescue

Boomers, exiled from the workforce due to ageism or the pandemic—or both—may be employers’ answer to the Great Resignation

- BRADLEY SCHURMAN

WILL OLDER AMERICANS SAVE US? Unless you have been living in exile, you know all about “The Great Resignation,” a term coined by organizational psychologist and Texas A&M professor Anthony Klotz. It’s the period beginning in 2021 when pandemic-shocked employees went into revolt: The number of Americans quitting their jobs exceeded pre-pandemic highs for a majority of the year, despite employers struggling to fill millions of open positions. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), roughly 3 percent of all workers, or 4.3 million people, quit their jobs in December. This was a slight improvement over the previous month, but still problematic given that help wanted signs are still ubiquitous across the nation.

Meanwhile, thanks to cost-cutting and ageism, older workers were taking the beating they usually do during recessions. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, it’s expected during a normal year that one out of eight older people will leave their jobs; that jumped to nearly one out of three by April 2020 and hovered around one in five for the remainder of the year. Furthermore, the report says, the “share of people ages 55 or older who left the workforce during the pandemic increased by a statistically significant 7.6 percentage points.”