Public Partnerhsip Releases Survey and Teams with IBM To Launch Initiative To Lure Older Workers to Federal Employment

The Partnership for Public Service and IBM have launched an initiative to help match government’s critical hiring needs with the talents of baby boomers looking for encore careers where they can find interesting and challenging work. The initiative--"FedExperience Transitions to Government"--is a response to the hard hit the federal government is taking in the war for talent, as more than one-third of the full-time permanent federal workforce gets ready to retire or leave in the next five years.

As a pilot initiative with the U.S. Department of Treasury, the goal of IBM and the Partnership is to identify, recruit, and hire interested IBM employees and retirees and match them to key federal government jobs.

“FedExperience is a win-win-win,” said Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service president. “Boomers get their second career where they can find meaningful work, our government gets the talent it needs to fill looming shortages and the American people get a government that has the talent to service its people.”

At the same itme, the Partnership released a report that lays out the case for, and barriers to, connecting baby boomers with federal job opportunities. Findings of "A Golden Opportunity: Recruiting Baby Boomers Into Government" include:

• Older, experienced workers are planning to continue working: 71% of workers age 55–59 reported they plan to work for at least six years; 29% for 11 years or more.
• Old workers’ skills align with government’s talent needs.
• Older workers are interested in government service: 53% of older workers surveyed are at least somewhat interested in federal government work.
• Experienced workers who enter government service like it.

Source: Partnership for Public Service News Release (January 17, 2008)

Survey: Top 50 Places for a "Retirement Job" in the United States

RetirementJobs.com has released its list of the 50 best places in the United States for those seeking retirement jobs. A "retirement job" for these purposes can span a large spectrum and include, among others, workers who have achieved the traditional retirement age of 62 to 63 yet continue to work to those who have retired (stopped working in their primary occupation) but seek to resume working or begin a second career ad to individuals age 50 to 65 who have been “involuntarily retired” and need to become reemployed on a full time basis.

The factors considered for "The 50 Best Places for Retirement Job Seekers" in the selection of a locatokn as a "Best Place" include:

1. General employment growth;
2. Unemployment rate;
3. Housing costs;
4. General cost of living;
5. Prevalence of key retirement job opportunities;
6. Presence of "Age Friendly Certified Employers™"; and
7. Healthcare services.

Source: Retirementjobs.com Press Release (November 21, 2007)