Baby Boomers Refuse To Retire

massey-university

Tue Jul 28 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Baby Boomers Refuse To Retire

Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 11:43 am
Press Release: Massey University

28 July 2009
For immediate release

As the first of New Zealand’s largest and most influential generation start turning 65, the big question taxing society is, “Will our aging baby boomers slip quietly into their golden years to become a burden on the young, or will they, rebellious to the last, reinvent the way we think of older people and the workforce?”

An ambitious new research project launched today in Auckland plans to answer that question by asking boomers themselves.

Called the “New Zealand Boomer Dreams Study 2009”, it is the most comprehensive study so far undertaken into the country’s million-plus baby boomer generation and their plans for what’s starting to be called their “unretirement”.

“If New Zealand baby boomers are like boomers overseas, then current concerns about the burden they might be on pensions and social services, and the hole they leave in the workforce, may be quite misplaced,” says Massey University student researcher and baby boomer, Sharon Buckland.

“We need to find out if that’s true, because it could have social, financial, business and economic ramifications. The survey I am launching on boomerdreams.co.nz today asks New Zealand baby boomers what their plans and desires are for the future. If they are typical of boomers overseas, their answers are likely to surprise social planners and both relieve and frustrate Generation X and Y workers.”

“American, Australian and British baby boomers are typically not eagerly anticipating lives of disengaged retirement. Instead, many plan to work, contribute to social causes and continue to influence society, as they have all their lives,” she says.

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Ms Buckland says many baby boomers want to keep working, but on their own terms and with more time for leisure, travel and their families. That could revolutionise the workforce as employers begin to offer sabbaticals, part-time work, flexible hours and other incentives to retain experienced staff.

Today’s boomers are better educated, healthier, more affluent and better off than the generation before them. They are also likely to live twenty to thirty years after retirement age. Our largest and arguably most influential generation has notoriously never conformed as expected and Ms Buckland says there is no evidence to suggest that they now plan to behave like the generation before them and “retire gracefully to do charitable works”.

Ms Buckland says baby boomers may want to renegotiate their life expectations, and they have the numbers to drive that change.

The survey runs on the website until 10 August. New Zealand baby boomers are invited to have their say online at www.boomerdreams.co.nz.

Ms Buckland is conducting the survey as part of her Executive MBA programme at Massey University in Auckland and says the survey’s findings will be made freely publicly available.

The New Zealand Boomer Dreams Study 2009 closely follows an American Boomer Dreams study conducted in 2006 by respected American researchers, The Futures Company (formerly Yankelovich Inc.), and is replicated with permission. This American firm originally coined the term, “Baby Boomers” in the 1960s and has been tracking the generation for more than thirty years. More information about The Futures Company is available on www.thefuturescompany.com.

ENDS

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