Hospitals scrambling to attract and retain nurses are among America's best employers for workers over 50 years of age, senior citizen's organization AARP said Tuesday.
With U.S. nurses in short supply and getting older -- the average age in the late 40s -- the health care industry is working hard to keep "mature" nurses on the job, AARP said in its fourth annual report on the best places to work for the over-50s.
Twelve of the 35 "best" U.S. employers named by AARP this year are hospitals that have taken steps ranging from retraining retired nurses to offering flexible working hours and phased retirement.
AARP said such enticements for graying workers could soon be embraced by other industries to address looming skill shortages as an aging American workforce reaches retirement.
"The best employers in the health care sector appear to have more developed mature worker programs than the best employers in most other sectors," the report said, adding: "What is happening ...in health care institutions may be a precursor of what will happen elsewhere.
"Aerospace and defense, utilities, health care, insurance and financial services, and public education, in particular, face some of the greatest threats of a "brain drain" as mature, experienced workers approach retirement and too few skilled replacements are available," said the report written for AARP by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
In 2002, 14 percent of the American workforce was aged 55 or older, but labor force projections indicate that by 2012, 19 percent of workers will be at least that old, the report said.
The non-profit AARP, which lobbies for senior citizens, has been announcing an annual list of "best" employers for the over-50s since 2001.
This year the AARP chose 35 companies from 78 applicants. The health care field also was the largest single group in last year's 25 award-winning employers.
Not all the enticements companies use to lure older workers are traditional benefits. St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, West Virginia, one of this year's winners, not only retrains retired nurses but offers mature female employees free diagnostic services such as screening for breast, skin and cervical cancer, the AARP report said.
Another winner, Bon Secours Richmond Health System of Richmond, Virginia, offers access to child care to grandparents, recognizing that an increasing number of grandparents are caring for their grandchildren.