Despite Warnings, U.S. Companies Remain Unprepared for Baby Boomers' Exodus

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (PRNewswire) -- With millions of Baby Boomers poised to age out of the workforce, U.S. companies remain unprepared for an imminent talent drain that threatens to alter the national economy, according to a new report by the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.

Nearly 70 percent of the almost 700 organizations surveyed do not yet know how old their workers are or how many are likely to retire. Forty percent reported that the aging of the workforce will have a detrimental impact on their businesses by 2012.

"The out-migration of a generation of workers will upset the entire balance of the workplace," said co-author Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, director of the Sloan Center on Aging & Work. "U.S. companies need to start planning strategically for workforce sustainability. The current abundance of older worker talent and experience is going to dry up, and businesses will very soon need to fill hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs."

The report -- The Pressures of Talent Management -- examined talent management practices at 696 organizations across the 10 leading sectors of the economy. The companies studied employ more than one million workers combined and represent businesses that account for roughly 85 percent of the jobs and payrolls in the U.S.

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