Retirement News : Seniors : Baby boomers' retirement worries firms

Baby boomers' retirement worries firms

Date Added: 08-05-2005

The more employees a company has, the more concerned it is likely to be about the retirement of baby boomers in 2007, according to a recent survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

The first nationwide poll on baby boomers' retirement was conducted as part of the ministry's basic survey of ability development, such as in-house training, which has been conducted on companies with more than 30 employees since 2001. A total of 1,405 firms responded to the survey.

The ministry defined the baby boomers as people born between 1947 and 1949.

The first generation of baby boomers of the postwar era will reach retirement age from 2007.

According to the survey, 22 percent of respondents said they were concerned about the impending retirement of baby boomers, with more than 30 percent of companies in the manufacturing industry worried about it.

About 20 percent of companies with 99 or fewer employees were concerned about the looming mass retirement, and 23 percent of firms that employ 100 to 299 people and 37 percent of companies with more than 300 employees were worried about it, according to the survey.

Sixty-three percent of companies that said they were concerned pointed out the difficulty they would face in securing motivated young and middle-aged workers capable of covering the work done by baby boomers after a large number of them retire in 2007.

Fifty-one percent said it would take a long time for senior workers' skills to be passed on to younger employees, perhaps hindering the smooth operations of their company.

To deal with the looming retirements, 61 percent of firms expressing concern about it said they would extend the employment period of some workers and reemploy some as temporary workers to train young employees.

Thirty-six percent of businesses that were unconcerned about the retirement of baby boomers also said they would take such measures.

For More Information: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20050507wo33.htm