Question

please kindly explain deeply on this

how might the aging of our workforce affect productivity? suggest both positive and negative possibilities.

Answer 1

As the population grows older, there will be an increasing percentage of the workforce over the age of 60. Older workers are usually thought to be less productive than younger workers, and the question arises as to whether an aging population will also be less productive.Using a common labor productivity benchmark hourly wages workers between 60 and 74 now earn more than an average worker between 25 and 59. Older men's hourly pay differential was around 22 percent in 2011. It was about 10% for older women. Certain earnings benchmarks show a somewhat less favorable picture, but all of them show significant improvement over the past two decades in the relative position of older workers compared to the nonaged. None of the male productivity indicators suggest that older male workers are less productive than average male workers ranging from 25 to 59.

There are major differences between highly educated and less educated people's participation rates in older ages, and these gaps have continued and even increased in recent decades. Nearly 60% of 62-74 year-old men with doctoral and professional degrees were still in jobs in the early 1990s. In comparison, the workforce remained just 20 percent of male high school dropouts of the same generation. Among older women, the participation-rate gap was smaller, but it was still high, and over time it has increased.

Not inevitably. Older workers ' skills and abilities do not decline as much as shifting and smart employers know how to take advantage of an aging workforce's shifting strengths. First, while physical strength is certainly declining with age, our bodies have a remarkable ability to maintain them for some abilities as long as we regularly use them. Grip strength is an excellent example: it peaks at age 35 and then decreases steadily for the general population.

But the most important advantage for older people is probably maturity–and in the organizational structure of the brain itself we can even detect it. The figure below shows scans of brain activity in the pre-frontal cortex during a three-group reference memory test: young people (Young), older low-performing people (Old-low), and older high-performing people (Old-high). Young people are mainly using the brain's right hemisphere, which we know is responsible for processing new information.Ironically, low-performing older people attempt to "imitate" young people's brains, but they fail: younger brains can not keep up with the reduced processing speed. On the other hand, high-performing older people use a different method: they "bilteralize" their brain activity and stimulate networks in their brain's left hemisphere as well.

A rapidly aging population means the economy has fewer people of working age. This leads to a shortage of skilled workers in the supply, making it harder for companies to fill in-demand roles. An economy that is unable to fill in-demand positions is facing adverse consequences, including decreased productivity, higher labor costs, delayed business expansion, and diminished international competitiveness. In some cases, supply shortages can push up wages, leading to wage inflation and a vicious price / wage spiral cycle. To compensate, most countries are looking for immigrants to maintain a good supply of their labor forces. Although countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom attract more highly skilled immigrants, integrating them into the workforce can be a challenge because domestic employers may not recognize immigrant credentials and work experience, particularly if they were acquired in countries outside North America, Western Europe, and Australia.