Involuntary Retirement

More Baby Boomers are becoming members of a burgeoning species: the involuntary retiree.

An expert estimates that 3.5 million people between the ages of 40 and 58 vanished from the American workforce from 2001 to 2004.  That's about 5% of all Baby Boomers.

In a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey which covers 2001-2003, 55-64-year-old displaced workers were less likely to find new jobs than 25-54-year-olds (57% vs. 69%), and more likely to drop out of the workforce altogether (20% vs. 11%).  Age discrimination and the business necessity of reducing costs to compete globally are parts of the problem why Corporate America has decided that employees at 50 are over-the-hill; marking time, lacking in energy and not up-to-date in necessary skills.

Of those over 50 who have filed tens of thousands of age-discrimination suits every year due to being forced into retirement or dumped, less than 1% of the complaints are litigated by the short-staffed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and in 2004, just 15% of the cases closed by the agency yielded out-of-court settlements.  In the 17,837 age-discrimination cases reported in 2004 by the EEOC, people who file these complaints will rarely win or even get a cash settlement.

What's an outplaced employee to do as the 55 to 64-year-olds increase by 8.3 million from 2002-2012?

The answer is to come to the realization that this is not your father's economy.  Now is the time to move on to a phased retirement by abandoning the hope that you will find another corporate job.  Starting or buying your own business is an option if you have the required skills, cash and attitude to make a go of it. 

Having more fun out of life and work is a good way to spend the best years of your life.

John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach, www.MentoringandCoaching.com

Source: FORTUNE, May 16, 2005