Political Science

According to the US Department of Labor, Americas labor force will grow to 162 million persons by 2014. From this pool, the youth labor force aged 16 to 24 and the primary working group aged 25 to 54 will decline however, workers 55 years and older will increase from 15.6 to 21.2 percent of the entire labor force by 2014. By then, the percent change in total employment by major occupational group will be led by professional and related positions, followed by service then management, business, and financial occupations (US Department of Labor, 2006).

Despite the current global recession, the USA is experiencing a long-term shortfall of approximately 10 million workers qualified to do the jobs truly required to sustain an advanced economy that must develop into an even more technology-based nation to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Moreover, these numbers do not take into account the changing nature of future positions requiring skill sets that are often in short supply in the US workforce today (Herman, Olivio, Gioia, 2003).

Clearly, the older Knowledge Worker, as coined by the late Dr. Peter Drucker of Claremont University in California, will become increasingly important in the USA and other economically advanced nations such as those in the European Union (Drucker, 2002). Therefore, American organizational effectiveness will suffer if US firms do not attract, retainand constantly trainthe countrys older Knowledge Workers because of their work and life experiences which cannot easily be matched by the younger workforce, even through formal education. Eliminating, or at least minimizing, the standard Human Resource Department practice of using cookie-cutter principles with regards to resumes and hiring practices will become increasingly necessary to conform to the changing demands of contemporary globalism (Ohmae, 2005).