Prospects for Increased Post-65 Career Employment for the Baby Boom Generation

(Excerpts)

by

James B. Huntington

Dissertation Submitted in Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Applied Management and Decision Sciences

Walden University

February 2007

All material in this document © James B. Huntington, 2007.  All rights reserved. 

ABSTRACT

Despite useful skills, less than a third of Americans over age 65 work, fewer still have meaningful careers. The opportunity for careers if important for those unwilling to retire and a source of significant income for others, yet there has been limited research. As part of this study, specific research questions addressed whether there is a relationship among age, gender, or education levels and senior citizens’ interest in careers and if there is a relationship between line of business and employers’ willingness to hire older workers. Senior citizens and potential employers in Florida were surveyed with Chi-square and R² analyses completed on the data. The results demonstrated no significant difference among age, gender, or education levels and senior citizens’ interest in careers or the perceptions of employers by line of business. The study did find senior citizens were interested in careers with variable hours or enhanced vacations. Nearly thirty-five percent of senior citizens, however, were discouraged from searching for these positions or did know they existed; yet eighty-seven percent of employers cited a lack of older applicants. The results demonstrate a potential mismatch between the interest of senior citizens seeking meaningful careers and employers. One important step is to develop support systems that can effectively connect older workers with employers. From a societal perspective, presenting senior citizens with meaningful careers is an important step in recognizing the valuable contributions of older workers and an essential source of additional income for individuals facing retirement with limited financial means.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many other people helped with the research stage itself. Jeff Ford, Walden University Research Coordinator, and his staff at the Institutional Review Board provided timely approval of the design. Dr. James A. Stahley, chair of Walden’s School of Management, also provided suggestions and responded quickly to my proposed corrections. Twenty-six different Florida employers agreed to complete and return surveys. American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) President Harriette Buckman agreed to let me distribute potential employee questionnaires at ACBL tournaments in general, and the ACBL’s District 9 Director Shirley Seals sanctioned my work at specific gatherings, where a total of 186 attendees completed surveys. During the 5 days of main-study data collection, many people, too numerous to name, helped me by showing interest in my work, encouraging others to take the surveys, and providing valuable moral support for me in my dealings with those less positive about my presence. My bridge partner Ping Chen drove 200 miles to support my effort, for one evening of which he consented to be probably one of the few in ACBL history to complete a winning session with a handbill soliciting questionnaire participants taped to his shirt.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

The average United States resident is getting older, healthier, and has higher life expectancy with commensurate physical and mental strength than ever before. Within 2 decades there will be tens of millions of American baby boomers aged 65 and above with good health, great ability, and numerous healthy years on the actuarial charts. Most will retire, but after a few years or even months many will want to be productive again. Their still considerable abilities will comprise a great national resource.

The Social Security system cannot stay solvent as it is. Although a complete collapse is not a reasonable prediction, it is almost certain that benefits will be reduced, its taxes will be increased, it will be made needs based, or will be limited to ever-older people, also within a few decades. In any of these events, it will no longer be a comprehensive or even substantial supplementary form of support for all those in their late 60s or even older. Many in the baby boom generation have saved less than those in previous generations, so without Social Security benefits, substantial numbers of them will find retirement at 65 or earlier undesirable or even impossible.

Increased career employment for those over 65 can address many of these problems. It has potential for participants to continue earning toward better, if later, retirements. It is consistent with the increased health and strength of those now approaching traditional retirement age. More than other activities, career employment provides personal purpose and represents a valuable contribution, which as the number of younger workers drops may be needed more than previously.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS

Population and Selection of Participants

With research questions for both employers and potential employees, the study included one population for each. Between the main and pilot studies, the surveys, designed to assess attitudes toward career employment of older people, were sent to 27 respondents (101 questionnaires total) working in human resources departments from companies in Florida, and offered to about 1,065 people attending American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) tournaments.

 

Potential Employees

 The respondents were attendees at an ACBL regional tournament held in Boca Raton, Florida, solicited from August 23 to August 27, 2006. The researcher arrived at the tournament Wednesday, August 23, and remained through the end of the last session Sunday, August 27. A variety of solicitation techniques were used. The pilot study had taken place in Jacksonville earlier that month, and attendees, some of whom were present in Boca Raton, were told in advance the main study would take place at the tournament there. Dropboxes, blank surveys, and pencils were stationed just outside both playing areas, in space where players would typically congregate, use the bathroom, buy entries, and walk through on the way to smoke. A total of ten spoken announcements were made at the beginning or ending of various bridge sessions, with emphasis on events restricted to “seniors” (those 55 and above); these continued until a tournament cochair refused to allow any more. About 25 copies of the employee respondents announcement flyer were displayed around the dropboxes, in the playing areas near where event scores were posted, and, before hotel administration forbid them, in other places around the playing areas. The researcher spent about 25 hours sitting with the dropboxes, mostly at times when one or more sessions were starting, ending, or on break, and then solicited respondents in person and answered questions about the survey, as well as about the dissertation, implications of the dissertation topic, and Walden University. The overall effect of word of mouth was substantial, as many players told others about the study and encouraged them to take part. The researcher also participated in seven tournament sessions, each of approximately 3 to 3 ½ hours, and solicited respondents then; during one of them, he and his partner actually taped announcement flyers to the front of their shirts to publicize the effort.

A total of 985 players participated in the tournament, which ran from Monday, August 21 through Sunday, August 27. The total tables of four in events only occurring Monday and Tuesday, the days the researcher was not present, was 136.5, making 546 player-sessions; the researcher estimates that there were no more than 120 different people in attendance those days who did not play later in the tournament. Subtracting that number from the total attendance of 985 leaves 865 exposed to the survey.

Pilot Study

A pilot study, or smaller-scale preliminary version of the research design was performed. Its purpose was to prepare for the main study by testing various aspects of the design, including response rates, response quality, and logistics in general.

For potential employees, the questionnaires were distributed at an ACBL sectional tournament held in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 3, 2006. The surveys were distributed through posting of six copies of the employee respondents announcement flyer, and personal solicitation from various sources. The questionnaires were made available for a total of 6 hours, covering the time from well before the morning sessions until after the afternoon ones had begun. Total attendance was 39 tables, or 156 different people, in the morning sessions, and 33 tables in the afternoon. The researcher estimates about 1/3, or 44, of the 132 people playing in the afternoon were not in attendance in the morning, meaning 156 plus 44 or 200 different people were exposed to the survey.

Auxiliary Study

Although the majority of main-study potential employee survey respondents indicated an age of 65 or older, it was not viable to restrict participation to those willing to admit to the researcher or those around them that they were of that age. Accordingly, a significant number of questionnaires were returned by those below 65.

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS

Pilot Study Results

The pilot study was conducted in July and August 2006. The main outcomes were: (a) the principal reasons for potential employees not working in career jobs related to the number of hours or days per week, the lack of opportunity for vacations or long breaks, a lack of perceived opportunities, and current financial status deterring them; (b) the principal reasons for employers not having more employees 65 or older in career jobs related to effect on group health insurance costs, a lack of applicants, and possible problems with culture or workplace atmosphere; (c) none of the four alternative hypotheses were supported; and (d) as above, three adjustments were made to the main study research operation. Of the 200 Jacksonville tournament attendees, 74 were given surveys of which 42 were returned.

Characteristics of Samples

Potential Employee Respondents

As before, main study data analysis was restricted to respondents indicating an age of 65 or above and self-assessed health sufficient for career job work. The surveys were completed by 144 potential employees, of which 38 gave ages of under 65, 3 did not indicate their age, and 7 others responded disagree or strongly disagree to Question 12, “my health is good enough to work at a career job, if I chose to or am doing so already.” The remaining 96 respondents used in the main-study data analysis ranged in age from 65 to 84, were both female and male, and had education varying from high school to doctorates. The mean age of the sample was 71.3, with a median of 70 and a standard deviation of 5.0, although three additional respondents identified their ages as “70+.” The sample was comprised of 64 females and 32 males. The median respondent had a 4-year college degree; when education levels were converted to years of schooling, with high school graduates credited with 12, those with some college given 14, those with bachelor’s degrees given 16, those with master’s degrees credited with 18, and those with doctorates 21, the mean years of education was 16.33 with a 2.27 standard deviation.

Figure 1. Age Distribution of Main-Study Potential Employee Respondents.  

Figure 2. Gender Distribution of Main-Study Potential Employee Respondents.  

Figure 3. Education Distribution of Main-Study Potential Employee Respondents.  

Research Question 1

The first research question was as follows: What are the principal reasons for potential employees aged 65 or older not working in career jobs?

Table 8

Distribution of Responses to Questions 5 Through 10 on the Potential Employee Main Study Survey.

Survey Question	Strongly Agree (%)	Agree (%)	Neutral (%)	Disagree (%)	Strongly Disagree (%)	Total Responses (a)
#5 – I would not accept, or could not manage, a ten-mile commute.	8 (8.4%)	18 (18.9%)	5 (5.3%)	40 (42.1%)	24 (25.3%)	95 (100.0%)
#6 – I would be interested in career jobs if I could work for less than 40 hours every week.	9 (9.6%)	39 (41.5%)	16 (17.0%)	19 (20.2%)	11 (11.7%)	94 (100.0%)
#7 – I would be interested in career jobs if I could work for less than 8 hours in a day.	8 (8.4%)	42 (44.2%)	14 (14.7%)	21 (22.1%)	10 (10.5%)	95 (100.0%)
#8 – I would be interested in career jobs if I could work for less than 5 days per week.	10 (10.4%)	43 (44.8%)	14 (14.6%)	21 (21.9%)	8 (8.3%)	96 (100.0%)
#9 – I think it would be pleasant to work in career jobs with younger people.	8 (8.3%)	59 (61.5%)	20 (20.8%)	6 (6.2%)	3 (3.1%)	96 (100.0%)
#10 – If I were worse off financially than I am now, I would be more interested in working at a career job.	17 (17.7%)	70 (72.9%)	5 (5.2%)	4 (4.2%)	0 (0.0%)	96 (100.0%)

(a) Totals may not add to 100.0% due to rounding.

Table 9

Means, Standard Deviations, and 95% Confidence Intervals for Questions 5 Through 10 on the Potential Employee Main Study Survey.

Survey Question	N	Mean	Standard Deviation	95% Confidence Interval
#5 – I would not accept, or could not manage, a ten-mile commute.	95	3.57	1.28	3.31 – 3.83
#6 – I would be interested in career jobs if I could work for less than 40 hours every week.	94	2.83	1.21	2.58 – 3.08
#7 – I would be interested in career jobs if I could work for less than 8 hours in a day.	95	2.82	1.18	2.58 – 3.06
#8 – I would be interested in career jobs if I could work for less than 5 days per week.	96	2.73	1.17	2.49 – 2.97
#9 – I think it would be pleasant to work in career jobs with younger people.	96	2.34	0.84	2.17 – 2.51
#10 – If I were worse off financially than I am now, I would be more interested in working at a career job.	96	1.96	0.63	1.83 – 2.09

Table 10

Number of Respondents, Proportions, and 95% Confidence Intervals for Possible Responses to Question 13 on the Potential Employee Main Study Survey.

Response to Question 13, “Of the following possible reasons for not working in career jobs, please indicate all of those that are important to you”	Number of Respondents Indicating (N=96)	Proportion	95% Confidence Interval
Problems with transportation to and from work	5	0.052	0.008 – 0.096
Problems with culture or workplace atmosphere	5	0.052	0.008 – 0.096
Lack of enough opportunities to justify the job-search effort	28	0.292	0.201 – 0.383
Full-time would be too many hours or days per week	56	0.583	0.485 – 0.682
Would not be able to take long vacations or have other long breaks.	51	0.531	0.431 – 0.631
Lack of information on what new careers would be good	25	0.260	0.173 – 0.348
No reason above;  I just don’t want to	34	0.354	0.258 – 0.450
Not applicable;  I am now working in a career job	8	0.083	0.028 – 0.139

Table 11

Possible Reservations for Main-Study Potential Employees Working in Career Positions, in Order of Percentage of Respondents Considering Each a Concern.  

Possible Reservation	Strongly Agree or Agree (%)	Named as Important (%)	Percentage Agreeing With Concern	Not Named as Important (%)	Strongly Disagree or Disagree (%)	Percentage Disagree-ing With Concern (b)
Current financial prosperity	90.6%	----	90.6%	----	4.2%	4.2%
Too many hours or days per week	53.0% (a)	58.3%	55.6%	41.7%	31.6% (a)	36.6%
Lack of vacations or long breaks	----	53.1%	53.1%	46.9%	----	46.9%
Just don’t want to	----	35.4%	35.4%	64.6%	----	64.6%
Insufficient opportunities	----	29.2%	29.2%	70.8%	----	70.8%
Lack of information	----	26.0%	26.0%	74.0%	----	74.0%
Problems with transportation	27.4%	5.2%	16.3%	94.8%	67.4%	81.1%
Coworker or culture problems	9.3%	5.2%	7.2%	94.8%	69.8%	82.3%
(Was then working in a  career job)	----	8.3%	8.3%	91.7%	----	91.7%

(a) Responses to Questions 6 through 8 averaged.

(b) Neutral responses to individual-concern questions (Numbers 5 through 10) explain why the percentages agreeing and disagreeing do not add to 100%. 

Research Question 2

The second research question was the following: How do people over 65 who are interested in career jobs differ demographically (e.g. in age, gender, and education) from those who are not?

To test the alternative hypothesis that there is a statistically significant difference between age, gender, or education level and interest in career jobs, chi-square independence and multiple regression tests were conducted. The tests used 2x2 or 2x3 matrices. On one dimension, each matrix split the responses to Survey Question 11, “at this point in my life, regardless of circumstances, I cannot see myself ever being interested in working at a career job,” into two categories, strongly agree and agree combined, and disagree and strongly disagree combined; those responding neutral were dropped from the analysis. The other dimension varied by matrix. The first split respondent age into groups of 65 to 69 and 70 and above. The second showed gender. The third split education three ways, into absence of a bachelor’s degree, a bachelor’s degree only, and an advanced degree.

Table 12

Results of Chi-Square Test for Independence on Grouped Responses to Question 11 on the Potential Employee Main Study Survey.

Independent Variable	N	Matrix Size	Degrees of Freedom	X2	p-value	Statistical Significance
Age	85	2x2	1	2.837	0.092	None
Gender	84	2x2	1	0.980	0.322	None
Education	84	2x3	2	1.969	0.378	None

The multiple regression was conducted using responses to Question 11, converted to a numeric scale with the same method as before, with 1 indicating the respondent strongly agreed they would never be interested in a career position and 5 showing strong disagreement with that statement, as the dependent variable. The three independent variables were gender from Question 15 with female coded as 1 and male coded as 0, age from Question 14 used directly (those not providing a numeric age were dropped from analysis), and education from Question 16 converted to numbers from 1 meaning “did not complete high school” through 6 for “doctorate or equivalent.” The R² of 0.0186, which converted to an adjusted R² of -0.0148, indicated an extremely weak model, in which the three independent variables chosen explained almost none of career-job attitudes. Removing one or two of the independent variables damaged the model only slightly, as it explained very little anyway.

Research Question 3

The third research question read as follows: What are the principal reasons for major employers not having more employees 65 or older in career jobs?

Table 13

Distribution of Responses to Questions 5 Through 12 on the Employer Main Study Survey.

Survey Question	Strongly Agree (%)	Agree (%)	Neutral (%)	Disagree (%)	Strongly Disagree (%)	Total Responses (a)
#5 – People 65 and over generally don’t work out at career jobs here.	1 (2.4%)	5 (12.2%)	6 (14.6%)	19 (46.3%)	10 (24.4%)	41 (100.0%)
#6 – People 65 and over are harder to manage than those younger.	1 (2.4%)	1 (2.4%)	4 (9.8%)	19 (46.3%)	16 (39.0%)	41 (100.0%)
#7 – People 65 and over are more likely to quit career jobs than those younger.	2 (4.9%)	5 (12.2%)	7 (17.1%)	17 (41.5%)	10 (24.4%)	41 (100.0%)
#8 – People 65 and older in career jobs generally don’t fit our workplace culture.	1 (2.4%)	4 (9.8%)	1 (2.4%)	23 (56.1%)	12 (29.2%)	41 (100.0%)
#9 – Employees 65 and older tend to have excessive health problems.	0 (0.0%)	3 (7.3%)	14 (34.1%)	21 (51.2%)	3 (7.3%)	41 (100.0%)
#10 – Employees 65 and over require too many accommodations.