(INDIANAPOLIS) -- A new report released today sounds the alarm for Hoosier businesses dependent on Baby Boomers and their experience. While many nearing retirement are currently staying in the workforce longer to make up for lost savings amid the economic downturn, that trend will not last forever.  This will leave employers - sooner rather than later - with a loss of institutional knowledge and expertise.  Critically, some of the professions to be the hardest hit are the ones in which a shortage of qualified workers already exists.

The Workforce Wise study, Aging Implications: A Wake-up Call  from the Indiana Chamber Foundation, addresses this changing demographic and offers ways to turn aging issues into opportunities. The initiative is another evolution of the Chamber's efforts to address workforce matters in Indiana. In 2006, the Chamber launched Ready Indiana to provide solutions to workforce literacy challenges.

To put the situation into numbers, of the state's typical working age population (ages 18 to 64), two in five - about 1.6 million workers - will be steadily moving into retirement over the next 20 years.

The professions that will most feel the effects: education/training and library, community and social services, computer and mathematical science, legal, architecture and engineering, as well as office and/or administrative support.

Unfortunately, many Indiana businesses and communities simply are not prepared for this inevitability. The report advises employers to work toward more flexible employment models that preserve talent and offer the opportunity for knowledge to be transferred to others.

Other study recommendations:

• Workers should continuously update skills to remain competitive in the workplace
  Communities should engage in active planning to prepare for the majority of older Hoosiers who prefer to remain in Indiana (the perception of most retirees moving south is simply not true)
• Educators should add counseling, career planning and course work oriented toward updating skills for all ability levels in the aging workforce 

"The aging population, both today and in the future, is not content staying at home when retirement age comes and many need to work," notes Mark Lawrance, Indiana Chamber senior vice president for foundation and operations.  "These people can continue to make valuable contributions to the workplace and society if we are prepared.  In addition, employers cannot afford to lose all the valuable experience and knowledge this generation offers."

The Aging Implications report is a compilation of existing state and national studies as well as four papers commissioned by the foundation for Workforce Wise. Partners in those reports were Indiana University Center on Aging and Community; Indiana Grantmakers Alliance; Ball State University Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology; Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research; Quantum Human Resources, LLC; University of Indianapolis Center for Aging and Community; and Ivy Tech Community College.

Workforce Wise's broad-based steering committee - including representatives from universities, social services organizations, not-for-profits and the business community - reviewed existing research in addition to calling for further Indiana-specific reports. Efforts to address the graying population will continue through the Workforce Wise initiative.

Lawrance concludes, "The Aging Implications report identifies the specific challenges in Indiana while raising awareness to this changing demographic. Now, Indiana employers will have to take a hard look at their workplace to understand how to meet this challenge and benefit from the experience still in place. Workforce Wise can help in that undertaking."

Recent reports on aging (including the Aging Implications report, the four commissioned papers and relevant national studies) and more information about the initiative are available online at www.workforcewise.com.

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The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has been the state's largest broad-based business advocacy
organization for over 85 years.  The nearly 5,000 member companies employ 800,000 Hoosier workers.