Aging & Work Facts Database

Now, for a limited time, the Center on Aging & Work is making this resource available publicly before granting exclusive access to Center Partners & Affiliates, and members of the Center’s research team.

Features of the Aging & Work Facts Database include:

• individual facts searchable by topic
• brief descriptions of studies connected to facts
• powerpoint-ready graphics
• full citations, for those interested in locating the statistic’s source

During this initial period of Beta-testing we welcome your feedback.

The Aging & Work Facts will soon be accessible only through a password protected web page, with exclusive access given to Employer Partners and Affiliates, and members of the Center Research Team. For more information on how to become a Partner or Employer Affiliate, please contact agework@bc.edu.

KEYWORD Search Tips:

• Enter one or more keywords in the search box below. Using “and” between keywords is not necessary. To find only facts with graphs, include the word “graph” in your search.
• If you use more than one word in the search box and no results appear, try removing one or more of the words. 
• If no results appear, you may try alternate forms of the word (for example, if "marriage" does not work you may try "marital")
• To view the facts relevant to your search, click on “more” in the first item.  Then use the “next” button to view each of the facts retrieved by your search.
• At this time, exact phrase searching is not available.

TOPIC Search Tips:

• Topics are arranged alphabetically.  Scroll down to view topics, clicking on a topic to access facts of interest.  To view a specific fact, click “more.”  Click the “next” button for additional facts on that topic.
• To view a print-ready file of all of the facts for a particular topic, scroll to the bottom of the results display.

SEARCH BY TOPIC: Age Bias and Employment Discrimination Business Strategies & Workforce Development Caregiving: Elder Caregiving: Employer-sponsored benefits for Caregiving: Other (grandchildren, spouse, dependents) Demographics: Age Distribution, Life Expectancy Education and Training Educational Attainment Employee Engagement & Job Satisfaction Employer-sponsored benefits (see also Caregiving) Employment Preferences Flexible Work Options (general) Flexible Work Options: Bridge Jobs Flexible Work Options: Consulting, Contract Work, Self-employment Flexible Work Options: Flexible Schedule Flexible Work Options: Leaves of Absence Flexible Work Options: Part-time Employment Flexible Work Options: Phased Retirement Flexible Work Options: Remote Work, Telecommuting, Telework Flexible Work Options: Work Redesign Gender Health: Health Behaviors Health: Health Care Costs Health: Health Insurance Health: Health Status Health: Workplace Injuries Income Knowledge Transfer Labor Force Participation Marital Status Medicare & Medicaid Mental Health Multi-generational Workplace Older Workers, Advantages of Older Workers, Costs of Older Workers, Job Skills and Demands Older Workers, Perceptions about Peformance, Productivity, Absenteeism Pensions and Retirement Accounts Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration Reasons for working Recruitment , Retention, Tenure, Turnover According to data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, "the average person born in the later years of the baby boom held 10.8 jobs from age 18 to age 42. Nearl...  more According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2006 "among wage and salary workers ages 55 to 59, about half were employed for 10 years or more with their current employer.&n...  more According to analysis of CPS data, "among older workers (ages 45-64), the percentage having 25 or more years of tenure declined from 1983 to 2006, particularly for those ages...  more According to analysis of CPS data, in 2006, 48.1% of male workers ages 60-64 had 10 or more years of job tenure, down from 65.5% in 1983. (p. 5) In comparison, for all male w...  more Comparisons of 1983-2006 CPS data showed that the median tenure* for older working males (ages 55-64) declined steadily from a peak of 15.3 years in 1983 to 9.5 years in 2006,...  more Based on analysis of 2004 Census data, 27% of workers between the ages of 55-64 had 20 or more years of tenure with their current employers;  38% had 15 or more years; an...  more In a 2007 national survey, 400 employers were asked about the likelihood of retaining older workers*. On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being "highly unlikely" and 10 "highly li...  more In a 2007 study of employee benefits trends, "nearly 30% of baby boomers, and 41% of young families, say benefits were a primary consideration in taking their jobs. The share...  more A 2007 study of employee benefits trends shows a "correlation between satisfaction with benefits and loyalty to employers. Of employees who are highly satisfied with their ben...  more According to a 2007 study of employee benefits trends, "in 2006, 55% of participating companies identified employee retention as a top goal in putting together a benefits plan...  more The top ten human resources challenges indicated by employers in a 2007 study as being challenges to a "great extent" included: encouraging early-career employees to remain wi...  more Among the organzations responding to a 2007 national survey, the return on investment (ROI) is measured on the following HR priorities: initiatives to increase retention (52.6...  more Although more than half of the organizations in a 2007 national study reported that they had taken steps to a "moderate" or "great extent" to recruit employees of diverse ages...  more Among the top 10 HR challenges noted by employers in a 2007 national study, encouraging employees to remain with the organization was reported as being an HR challenge to a gr...  more Employers responding to a 2007 national survey estimated that, on average, it costs $12,092 to replace an employee. (p. 10)...  more According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2006 the median years of tenure with the current employer was 8.8 for those 65 and older, 9.3 for workers 55-64, 7.3 for worker...  more Comparisons of 1983-2006 CPS data showed that the median tenure* for older working males (ages 55-64) declined steadily from a peak of 15.3 years in 1983 to 9.5 years in 2006,...  more A 2007 survey of more than 28,000 employers across 25 countries and territories "revealed that 14% of employers globally said they have a strategy for recruiting older workers...  more According to data from the 2007 National Study of the Changing Workforce, young employees (aged 18-30) have an average of 6.4 years in the labor force, compared to 21.3 years...  more In a 2007 McKinsey survey of business executives covering 93 countries in all the main regions of the world, 72% report that they are looking externally for the right people t...  more In a 2007 McKinsey survey of business executives covering 93 countries in all the main regions of the world, 47% of the respondents indicated that the single biggest organiza...  more In a 2008 survey of employers, the issues most frequently mentioned as important employment issues for the coming year are "hiring the right people with the right job skills"...  more In a 2008 survey of employers, while 46% of the respondents identify "talent retention" as extremely important to the future of their organizations, only 10% believe that thei...  more According to a 2008 survey of employers, "60% of respondents report that they have a leadership talent shortage right now that will impede their organization's performance...  more According to a 2006 survey, among recruiting strategies to attract mature workers, 50.6% of respondents do not proactively pursue mature workers in recruiting. 25.3% attempt...  more According to a 2006 survey of employers, the most frequently used strategies to retain older workers are alternative work schedules (48%) and consulting assignments (42%). (p....  more According to a 2006 survey, among strategies to retain older workers, alternative job design has been adopted by 18% of respondents and is planned for the future by 25%. Howe...  more A 2005 analysis of Towers Perrin data shows that "more than two-thirds (68%) of all voluntary turnover occurs among employees with five or fewer years of service." (p. 55)...  more A 2005 analysis of Towers Perrin data indicates that replacing an experienced worker of any age can cost 50% or more of the individual's annual salary in turnover-related...  more According to a 2008 WorldatWork report, employees' engagement levels vary with length of time with their employer. At one year or less of tenure, the employee engagement l...  more According to the 2007 National Study of Business Strategy & Workforce Development, more than 50% of respondents measure the return-on-investment (ROI) of marketing initiat...  more More than 60% of Early Boomers [born 1946-1954] agree they would like to stay with their current organization for the rest of their working lives, compared to less than 30% of...  more In the 2007 National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, employers responded that it is less likely that late-career employees would look outside the company...  more According to the 2004 Generational Differences Survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), "human resource professionals from large organizations wer...  more According to the 2003 SHRM Older Workers Survey, organizations are preparing for the possibility of a shortage of workers due to the retiring baby boom generation by: increase...  more According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "older workers tend to be more pessimistic about the economy than younger workers. Fifty-one percent of Baby Boomers (those...  more According to the 2003 Eldercare Survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), "sixteen percent of respondents indicated that their organization has f...  more According to the 2003 Eldercare Survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 1% of HR professionals strongly disagreed with the statement "providing e...  more “Despite the relative privileges at the workplace reported by older male employees, 37 percent of older women state that they have “high” commitment to their employers i...  more “NSCW found that men report that they have been in the labor force for more years (mean for men = 37.7 years; mean for women = 32.3 years). Furthermore, men have longer tenu...  more A recent survey conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that two-thirds (68 percent) of the workplaces reported that their workforces included emplo...  more "... employer-provided elder care assistance programs increase the average retirement age of men by eight months, while the same programs increase the average retirement age o...  more "When asked about the extent to which they had adopted practices to promote and retain specific groups of employees, the respondents in the 2007 National Study of Business Str...  more In the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development (2007), "approximately half of the employers (48.6%) indicated that they attempted to use their benefits p...  more Approximately one fourth (26.1%) of the respondent organizations in a 2007 study stated that they have formal policies or programs to hire back retirees, with another half (52...  more According to analysis of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, just over a third of the employers (37.0%) stated that they had adopted strategies...  more According to analysis of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, less than one-fifth (18.9%) of the employers indicated that their organizations lin...  more "According to analysis of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, employers were more likely to report that they have offered on the job training to...  more Less than one-third (30.7%) of the respondents in a 2007 study indicated that their organization had adopted practices to recruit employees of diverse ages to a "great extent"...  more According to analysis of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, over 40% of the organizations reported that recruiting competent job applicants (59...  more According to analysis of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, the top five business strategies that were very important for organizations were in...  more According to analysis of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, about one-third (33.8%) of the employers reported that their organization had made...  more According to data from the National Study of the Changing Workforce*, there is a relationship between employee age and years in the labor force (an average of 6.4 years in the...  more In 2002, female wage and salary workers age 55 to 64 and 65 and above had worked for their employers for a median of 9.6 and 9.5 years, respectively. Approximately 23.4% age 5...  more      back to top For a print-ready file of all statistics for this topic, click here. Retirement Income & Expenditures Retirement Planning Retirement Statistics Retirement, Timing of Social Security Unemployment Voluntarism

DOWNLOAD A FACT SHEET: The following Fact Sheets contain selected facts and statistics from the database ( PDF format): "Mental Health" (Sep 2007) "Bridge Jobs" (Aug 2007) "Part-time Work" (Jul 2007) "The Multi-Generational Workplace" (Jul 2007) "Phased Retirement" (Jun 2007) "Age Bias And Employment Discrimination" (Feb 2007) "Employer Sponsored Pensions" (Feb 2007) "Age and the Labor Force" (Jan 2007) "Social Security and Older Workers" (Jan 2007) "Voluntarism Among Older Adults" (Jan 2007) "Older Workers’ Preferences for Work & Employ-ment" (Oct 2006) "Elder Caregiving" (Oct 2006)   SEARCH BY keyword: back to top