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they are early responses to a growing need of companies to retain the knowledge and skills of retired employees who, for a variety of reasons, are interested in remaining active in their fields.
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(speaking as an IT Software person )
Not to mention of course that a lot of LEGACY systems need to be maintained by programmers who write in old languages like COBOL and a whole heap of old code that no one teaches in college anymore, that no new graduate likes to learn because they are technologically uncool, but are still doing the grunt of the business logic.
I think it is a good strategy for us to encourage seniors to continue working IF THEY SO DESIRE and WHILE THEY STILL CAN.
Demographically, it will help to mitigate the disastrous problem we will be facing when the bulk of the boomers reach retirement age. Which is this -- WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH WORKERS TO SUPPORT RETIREES !!! ( Social Security reform is Dead on the water and Bush isn't even bringing it up any more ).
This trend will continue to grow. There are too many aging baby boomers, and a shortage of younger workers.