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For
immediate
release:
Employment
boom
for
older
Canadians
drives
expansion
of
Prime50
centres
A
first-of-its-kind
service
promoting
employment
of
Canadians
over
age 50
is
expanding
its
operations
across
Canada.
Barry
Witkin
launched
his
brainchild,
a
web-based
job
board
at
www.Prime50.com,
with
the
dual
goal
of
helping
Canadians
in
their
50s
and
older
find
employment,
while
raising
awareness
among
employers
about
the
value
of
recruiting,
rehiring
and
retaining
the
growing
numbers
of
people
from
that
age
bracket
who
want
to
continue
working.
Witkin,
a
retired
Toronto
chartered
accountant,
was
among
the
first
to
recognize
the
rapidly-developing
trend
in
Canada,
the
United
States
and
abroad
towards
employment
of
people
over
50.
Companies
are
increasingly
interested
in
enlisting
the
skills,
experience
and
work
ethic
of
aging
baby-boomers,
who
want
to
remain
productive,
he
says.
He
plans
to
establish
at
least
fifty
Prime50
Centres
across
Canada
in the
next
few
months,
with
general
managers
already
enlisted
to
operate
eight
locations
in
Ontario,
as
well
as
Western
and
Atlantic
Canada.
And.the
list
is
growing
every
week,
he
adds.
Before
launching
Prime50
last
October,
Witkin
interviewed
hundreds
of
employed
and
unemployed
people
over
50, as
well
as
employers,
career
counselors,
human
resources
professionals,
recruiters,
politicians
and
economists.
"All
were
aware
of the
huge
demographic
shift
taking
place
due to
the
declining
birthrate
and
aging
of the
baby-boom
generation,"
he
says.
"It
was
obvious
that
there
were
no
services
that
specialized
in
providing
employment
opportunities
and
career
services
for
the
50-plus
age
group."
A
common
complaint
of
employers
is
that
they
recruit
young
people,
train
and
develop
them
and
after
two
years
or so,
they
leave.
The
company
then
has to
start
all
over
again,
Witkin
explains.
"They're
beginning
to
realize
they
can
hire a
50-plus
person,
pay
less
than
they
think
for
experience
and
know
they
have
reliable,
loyal
people
who
aren't
going
to
leave."
He
agrees
with a
recent
report
that
workers
in
their
50s or
older
are a
major
answer
to
Canada''s
skills
shortage.
In
addition,
Statistics
Canada
last
month
reported
that
one-third
of all
labour
force
growth
in
Canada
since
the
'90s
has
involved
workers
over
age
55.
The
trend,
StatsCan
said,
is
partly
due to
new
prosperity
for
some
employment
sectors
and
the
willingness
of
older
workers
to
stay
on the
job.
Economist
Philip
Cross
of
StatsCan
says
many
provinces
have
abandoned
mandatory
retirement
laws
to
accommodate
this
trend.
Longer
life
expectancy
is
encouraging
people
to
remain
on the
job
well
past
the
traditional
retirement
age of
65, he
says.
"Now
they''re
staying
in the
labour
force,
because
their
skills
are
needed."
Cross
says.
"You
still
have
the
same
flexibility
to
retire
as you
did a
few
years
ago,
but
people
are
choosing
to
stay."
Prime50,
in
addition
to its
interactive
website
and
job
board,
today
launched
its
monthly
Prime50
Insight
News
Journal,
which
carries
articles
and
columns
on
trends
and
developments
on the
50+
labour
market,
along
with
company
profiles,
job-search
advice
and
other
features.
The
monthly
News
Journal
is
available
to
subscribers,
including
job
seekers,
and
employers,
through
the
Prime50
website.
www.Prime50.com
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