According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), by 2030 workforce will age on a global level. By that time, workforce shall be increased in 270 million to reach 750 million workers. The organization states that populations with more mature workers tend to make economies more dynamic, but also cause an imbalance in skills and use of new technologies.

“The number of elder people is growing around the world. The proportion of workers older than 55 years old in the global workforce went from 10.5% in 1990 to 14.3% in 2014”, said Ekkehard Ernst, ILO’s main economist.

He explained that the older the workforce gets, the greater is the chance of economic slowdown.  However, the problem is not the age of workforce. It is the aging of active population what makes the economy become more vulnerable to growth weakness.

“In fact, economies with an average older workforce have greater chances of experiencing an accelerated growth.  Older workers are considered a factor that makes the economy more dynamic, as they have more experience, which can help them judge more appropriately whether a certain technology shall benefit work processes or not.”
Nevertheless, he said that if workforce ages fast, there could be an imbalance of skills that may be hard to solve, as companies will need to adapt the workplace to the needs of older workers.

Generally, older workers may look forward to adopting new technologies, as the technological process usually favours them, allowing the replacement of jobs that demand physical effort for cognitive tasks, to which they can adapt better than their younger colleagues.

Source: http://www.oem.com.mx/