A recent study reveals that there is a struggle occurring between those in their upper years of their careers and those who have just graduated from college who are looking to enter the work force.

Workers are Retiring Later in Life

Older people have lost a lot of their retirement savings in the financial meltdown and are finding that they have to work past retirement age. They are strapped for cash and have resorted to staying in the work force.

Their goal is to stay around until they have replaced some of the investment money that they have lost. While this is a good thing for them, it creates a challenge for younger workers who are ready to enter the work place with a degree in hand as there are less positions available to them.

College Graduates with Degree in Hand Accepting Lower Income Positions

With the older generations remaining in the workforce longer, the younger workforce, including eager college graduates are often forced to enter the workplace in lower income positions that do not take advantage of their college degrees.  Typically the college graduates are having to work between five and ten years before they can work their way into a career that uses their college degree – giving the older workers several more years in their positions before they find that they can no longer keep up the pace.  The younger workforce is then able to move into the vacancies left by their retirement.

Important Issues

The most important issues that are on the mind of most workers are these:

Job Security -This trumps holding the most desirable jobs. Older workers are concerned about this, too, because they are concerned that they might be let go in favor of younger workers who will likely not be as big of a drain on the payroll. Also, younger workers have fewer health issues and so that helps insurers to keep rates low.

Job Satisfaction - Most older employees are satisfied with their jobs and do not want to make moves to other career positions. They believe that doing so would be difficult at this point in their careers and that the chances that a new opportunity might not work out overshadows making a change and ending up with no job at all.

Happy Workers – Workers value happiness on the job. Attitudes towards companies and managers are important to them and help keep it worth coming in to work everyday.

Involuntary Retirement – Older workers are concerned about being forced out of work and into retirement because of health issues. Health issues at this age are more expensive and eat away at savings and investments, so these older workers do not want to give up on working unless they are coerced into retirement by their circumstances.

The older worker versus younger worker debate represents a quandary that is not likely to go away for several years. But, once it does, there will be ample work for younger people and time for them to build up their own careers and the rewards that go along with them.

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