wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this story
Silver Collar Workforce
photo

The golden years of retirement are supposed to be full of time with the grandkids, cruises around the world, indulging in those hobbies you never had time for at work. But that was then. Retirement now isn’t what it used to be. For one thing, more people are choosing not to retire at all and many Americans can’t afford to.

The number of older Americans in the workforce is growing so much that businesses are slowly waking up to the new wave of “silver collar” employees working well into their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. Baby boomers — nearly 78 million of them — better health and increased longevity are part of the picture. But so are economic insecurity, and the need to shore up meager retirement savings.

Hear about the benefits and challenges that come with the growing ranks of silver-collar workers.

Guests:

Peter Coy, economics editor, BusinessWeek

Sara Rix, Public Policy Initiative, AARP

Victor Marshall, director of the University of North Carolina Institute on Ageing and director of the US Workforce Ageing in the New Economy group.

 
 

Comments are closed.

Recent Shows
Poker: America’s Game
Thursday, November 19, 2009 image

Poker and American history. How the game of presidents, cowboys, gangsters, and online gamblers helped shape America.

Comments [10]
 
Google vs. Murdoch
Thursday, November 19, 2009 image

Rupert Murdoch wants to block the search giant from scooping free content from his newspapers. We’ll look at the staredown.

Comments [137]
On Point Blog
Michael Wolff and Jeff Jarvis on Murdoch v. Google

We had a rousing discussion about Google vs. Murdoch, and what it says about the whole future of news, with Michael Wolff, Jeff Jarvis, and Steven Brill. Here’s what Wolff and Jarvis had to say about the delusions of both Murdoch and Google.

More » | Comments [20]
 
Video: Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Last week, host Tom Ashbrook was on stage with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, asking him about some of the biggest technology and business issues of our time.
It was part of an MIT event held on Thursday, Nov. 5, to commemorate computer science professor Michael Hammer, who died last year. Here’s video of the full interview, courtesy of WBUR.org:

Among other things, Schmidt said the possibilities [...]

More » | Comments [4]
 
California, here we come! And we need your questions!

On Point is headed west!
No, no. Not for good. Only for one show. But it’s a very special show!  The NPR station in Thousand Oaks, California – KCLU – is celebrating their 15th anniversary. We’re lucky to have been on their airwaves for nearly seven years, and they invited us out west to host a live [...]

More » | Comments [10]