Yes, Maine has the oldest demographic profile in the nation, and we’re getting older everyday. And yes, there are challenges to the need to replenish our workforce, the need to attract younger workers to Maine and keep them here. But it is equally true that our aging workforce could be among our greatest assets, and interest in younger workers should not come at the expense of the more mature.
Before becoming involved with AARP, I had a long career that touched on many aspects of economic development in Maine, and it was always true that among our greatest competitive attributes was the quality of our workforce. Many of the people who earned that reputation for Maine are still here, still willing and able to contribute to the economic resurgence to which we all aspire and able to be part of an economy that creates new opportunities for younger people. It is widely acknowledged that most new jobs in recent years have been created by small businesses, and nowhere is that more prevalent than in Maine. And the biggest percentage of new businesses across the nation have been created by people over the age of 50, the Boomer generation and older. The generations need one another, and there are policy initiatives we can undertake that will both meet the changing needs of the aging workforce and help create an attractive environment for younger people.
The Boomer generation — those born between 1946 and 1964 — alone constitutes more than 52 percent of the total economy of Maine, and when combined with those in the next cohort — the millennials, sons and daughters of the boomers, born between 1980 and 2000 — are the backbone of the economy, both here in Maine and nationwide.
Despite spanning more than half a century, the similarities between the two groups are worth celebrating. Many millennials describe their parents as among their best friends. Many boomers are part of the sandwich generation, increasingly engaged in providing care for grandchildren and for their own aging parents. Family caregivers not only supplement the understaffed community of professional caregivers in Maine, but the economic dimensions of their efforts have been underappreciated. AARP will expand its advocacy on behalf of caregivers significantly in 2015, to help enlarge recognition of how significant their contribution is not just to family but also to their communities and to the health of the Maine economy in the largest sense.
One small but meaningful example is a concept that AARP is addressing in our Livable Communities initiative. Streetscapes friendly to older pedestrians can accommodate both walkers or power scooters, as well as bicycles and baby strollers. Everyone benefits. In current research, boomers consistently express preferences for more age-friendly compact urban environments, less emphasis on the need for or policies favoring dependence on automobiles, and easier access to goods and services. Three in 10 (30 percent) prefer building communities where fewer people need to drive long distances to work and shop, while far fewer want to see more roads (18 percent). Millennials, as well, are back-filling into urban core neighborhoods, resisting the tendency toward suburbanization that is so last-century. But those interests become more challenging in this, the most rural state in the east, where such infrastructural considerations as accessible public transportation and communications connectivity remain elusive.
Maine businesses that want to maintain long-term competitiveness will push themselves to build multigenerational workforces, and develop policies and practices to attract, educate and retain an increasingly age-diverse workforce and customer base. The ramifications of an aging workforce along with the aging consumer population are so extensive that the phenomenon has the characteristics of its own economy, called by AARP the Longevity Economy. Rather than a burden to society, the 50-plus population should be recognized as the primary engine of economic growth, with policies and entrepreneurial enterprises that address lifestyle evolutions as more of us choose to age in place — staying right where we always have been and continue to be active members of our communities. Agile Maine businesses will welcome the full participation of older Mainers in all capacities.
AARP Maine is rededicating its efforts in the coming year to the notion of aging in place. We are advocating for public policy that enables experienced seniors to bring all the resources of knowledge, wealth, and commitment to community and a work ethic that has been recognized around the world to the opportunities of the new workplace. There is strength in numbers, and our numbers are substantial. Imagine what we can do together.
Rich Livingston is volunteer state president for AARP Maine.