Aging Workforce News: Senate Aging Committee Holds Hearing on Using Federal Government as Model for Hiring, Retaining Older Workers

The U.S. Senate Special Commitee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) chaired a hearing titled "Leading By Example: Making Government a Model for Hiring and Retaining Older Workers." Kohl believes that "we must encourage employers to adopt policies now to attract and retain older workers" and that it "is possible to craft commonsense policy to create a win-win situation for both older workers and the companies that employ them." As for his focus on the federal government, he introduced the hearings by stating:

Why the federal government? Because nowhere is the foreseen labor shortage more pronounced than within the workforce of the nation’s largest employer. Over the next five years, more than half a million permanent full-time federal employees—or about one-third of the full-time federal workforce—will be eligible to retire. And over the next ten years, more than sixty percent of the federal workforce will reach retirement age.

Others heard at the hearings (with links to their prepared testimony) included:

Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR), Ranking Member of the Committee;
Barbara Bovbjerg, Director, Education, Workforce and Income Security Issues, US Government Accountability Office;
Nancy Kichak, Associate Director, Strategic Human Resources Policy, Office of Personnel Management;
Thomas Dowd, Administrator, Office of Policy Development and Research, Employment and Training Administration, US Department of Labor;
Max Stier, President and CEO, Partnership for Public Service;
Chai Feldblum, Co-Director, Workplace Flexibility 2010