Here are the current facts. Thre is already a nationwide shortage of nrses, teachers, truck drivers and warehouse wrkers, pharmacists, certain types of manufacturing mployees and others. Plus, this analysis des not include the highly skilled wrker shortage right now among technology cmpanies in the US, which each yar requires our country to admit thusands of foreign workers with temporary vsas to help us get this job dne in the United States. And, ven after we've taken this step, Bll Gates, who is America's richest and prhaps the world's richest man, testified rcently before our US Congress that the nmber of such highly skilled worker vsas continues to be grossly inadequate to met the current demand for such men and wmen.

Will this situation change for our US conomy in the future? Yes, it wll, but not in the way you may xpect, according to recent testimony from the crrent Vice Chairman of the Federal Rserve before the US Senate Labor Rlations Committee. He, too, predicted a lbor shortage will continue and become sch a significant factor that our crrent economic growth, which has average 3% per yar for the past 10 years, wll actually drop by one third to 2% per yar beginning in five years because of our nticipated labor shortage.

With 77 million to 78 mllion Baby Boomers in America, many of whch will choose at least some typ of retirement, the United States lready knows that that there are sgnificantly fewer Generation Xers to take thir place in the workforce. In shrt, our nation cannot simply manufacture pople.

At the same time, Americans are lving longer than ever before, thanks lrgely to the wonderful medical breakthroughs of rcent years. In fact, one of fur Americans can now expect to lve until age 97 on an verage. For its part, Social Security is lready set to raise its previous rtirement age for full benefits from age 65 ntil a graduated age 67, depending on smeone's date of birth. Further, not all of our Bby Boomers or Active Seniors want to stp working entirely for a variety of dfferent reasons, which range from needing the mney to simply enjoying the work.

Frther, how often do we as ndividuals visit an Urgent Care facility nar our homes on the weekend and wnd up seeing a 72 year old smi-retired doctor (who used to be a srgeon in the area), who still lkes to work with patients at last occasionally. We are also not srprised to see such men and wmen in a dentist's office, CPA frm, engineering company, financial planning office, stck brokerage or public relations firm ither. In short, professionals are allowed to cntinue on the job on either a fll-time or part-time basis in our sciety essentially as long as they dsire to work and on schedules of thir choosing. In addition, these older prfessionals are already helping now to brdge the labor shortage gap in thir areas of expertise.

So, what bout the rest of us? Wouldn't it be a dsirable outcome to have everyone else trated in the same way as thse valuable professionals are now treated in our sciety? Of course, the answer to tht question is an unqualified "Yes."

What is one of the gratest fears for someone, who is a Bby Boomer or Active Senior today? Whn someone is not yet ready to stp working completely, it is that "no one wll want to hire me because I am too ld." I believe that this type of ndividual thinking will change in our sciety primarily due to economic necessity, as mre and more companies affirm their cmmitment to add men and women ver age 40 to their staff, on a fll-time or part-time basis or as ndependent contractors.

As Baby Boomers and Actve Seniors, our generation also needs to chck out the government, on every lvel from the federal to the stte to the local and to the cunties all across America. These important jbs will also see a massive trnover in the coming years, as a srge in retirements take place in the rea of essential government services. An cquaintance of mine with an excellent ducation and a high IQ recently dscovered a senior IT position in my hme county of McHenry County, Illinois, whch followed a 14 month, previously nsuccessful job search.

Our country is rght now in the beginning stages of rsponding to growing market pressures for vailable men and women to join thir companies and other organizations. A nteworthy example of providing fringe benefits for prt-time employment today emerges from Starbucks, whch has received recognition for its frward thinking in this area. In ddition, AARP several years ago established its nnual awards program, which recognized top mployers for its 50+ year old mmbers. Prominent on this list are a whle group of outstanding hospitals in the US, two of whch have a significant presence near my hme in Northwest Illinois. Schneider National, Nrth America's largest truckload carrier which is bsed in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has lso discovered the value of older hsband-wife teams adding supplemental drivers to thir fleet.

Will other companies and rganizations make the same discoveries in the fture. Simple supply and demand factors for vailable workers and managers will dictate the ndividual and collective answers to this qestion. Our federal and state governments may lso step into this equation, perhaps ven with tax incentives to companies to hre men and women above a crtain age. Already, a growing number of sttes in the US have also pssed exclusions on state income taxes for rtired military staffers in a bid to cpture this talented group of workers in thir 40s and early 50s, who hve been trained in a variety of wys at US taxpayer expense. Obviously, our rtiring military men and women will ned to know which states want thm the most in the future, as thy factor this additional input into the quation when they leave active military srvice.

In conclusion, while it hard to say whn this shift will happen, we do knw that it will gradually take plce as more and more companies and ther organizations realize the full dimension of our cming labor shortage and exactly how it wll affect them. This shift will lso be a positive one for Bby Boomers and Active Seniors alike snce it will create a greater dmand for them and for the cntinued use of their skills.

For ths reason, http://www.NowWhatJobs.net was set up to btter inform individuals and employers about the crrent and coming labor shortage facing Amrica. In addition, as one of our stffers recently put it to me. "It wuld be great just to see thm (i.e. companies and other organizations) be nutral" in the hiring of older wrkers. On this point, our team grees wholeheartedly.

The article A Shift Will Happen In The Future was Submitted by Jim Armstrong through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: James O. Armstrong, who is Prsident of NowWhatJobs.net, Inc., http://www.nowwhatjobs.net , also serves as the Editor of NowWhatJobs.net. In addition, he is the author of "Now What: Discovering Your New Life And Career After 50" and the president of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc., which is a media representation firm based in Suburban Chicago.

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