Historic Shift in America's Labor Force
Gladys Ramos has been a nurse for 45 years - and doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.
"I'm 64 years old and very proud of it," Ramos told CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod. "I like to spend, I love shopping, I love to travel."
Like many seniors, Ramos not only works because she wants to. She works because she has to.
"I have a mortgage to pay," she said.
"Four in 10 folks still working in their 60s say they will have to delay their retirement because of the recession," said Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center.
Ramos is also the face of an aging American workforce. According to a new report, during the next decade 93 percent of the growth in the U.S. labor force will be made up of people 55 and older.
At the same time people 24 and under are choosing school instead of work. Fifty-seven percent of them are now in the workforce; it was 66 percent just nine years ago.
"Younger adults are having a hard time finding a job. So they say to themselves they can't find work anyway. Might as well stay in school. It's a good investment in my future," Taylor said.
The other big change is how the workforce breaks down by gender. The fact that 47 percent of American workers are now female is a huge jump from 28 percent six decades ago. For the first time ever, women workers may soon outnumber men.
"I think it's wonderful we're going to be 50 percent of the workforce," Ramos said.
Not so fast. With construction and manufacturing jobs vanishing and health care and teaching fields expanding, there's no predicting which will be the majority gender.
"As male-dominated sectors contract, it is conceivable that men will change their patterns of employment, you know," Taylor said. "They'll look to become more employed in rising sectors that heretofore have been predominantly women."
Meaning Gladys Ramos may soon have some company.
