The Prism of Age: Managing Age Diversity in the Twenty-First-Century Workplace

Abstract

Increases in older adults’ labour force participation rates have resulted in a workforce that is ‘more grey’ than it was at the turn of the millennium (see Chapter 2 for workforce ageing statistics). Between 1997 and 2007, the labour force participation rates of adults who were aged 55–64 years increased from 49.6 per cent to 57.1 per cent in Canada, from 41.1 per cent to 51.3 per cent in Germany, and from 54.1 per cent to 61.8 per cent in the United States (OECD 2009a). This extended labour force attachment among older adults reflects a set of new economic realities, emergent priorities of today’s 50+ age group and altered expectations for the productive roles that different societies around the world are setting for older adults, including continued participation in paid employment. (Morrow-Howell et al. 2009)