Employers have increasingly been finding themselves with an older workforce. And there are two reasons for this development over the last twenty years.
The first is simple demographics – the baby boomers were aging with the first tranche of this generation hitting the retirement age of 65 eleven years ago. The second is that this generation tended to stay in the workforce longer than their predecessors. That was especially true for women as the participation rate among older workers has grown since the early 2000s.
These are among the findings of a report prepared by StatsCanada on what happens to the labor pool when all the boomers retire. And what they found is….not much.
Immigration has been a help, replacing a significant component of the retiring boomer generation. But they tend to arrive a little later in life so they don’t bring the average age down.
But, while a big decline will be felt in some regions, Saskatchewan is the one province that will not see it. StatsCan projects our participation rate in 2041 will be identical to last year’s level.
