By Jane Han
NEW YORK — Around 10,000 baby boomers in America will reach 65 and retire every day for the next 20 years, a distant retirement phenomenon for most Koreans. But if you want to land a job in the U.S., the coming years may just be your time.
How so? Because once well-educated baby boomers — about 77 million of them — leave the workforce in waves, employers will need a large pool of talented candidates to fill the labor shortage. And this is where top-notch foreign workers can come into play, experts say.
“America will increasingly need foreign-born, highly skilled workers and will therefore have to reform its immigration policies and procedures not only to welcome the best and the brightest, but also to make it easier for them to stay,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute of International Economics.
He explained that baby boomers will take their skills with them upon retirement, but their children do not possess skills substantial enough to make up for the vacuum.
The fast-graying boomers are mostly elite white Americans born between 1946 and 1964 who hold the best jobs in the country.
Data shows they accounted for about 48 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2000, but this share is set to fall dramatically starting this year.
“By 2018, with an expected return to economic growth but no change in current labor force participation rates or immigration rates, there will likely be more jobs than people to fill them,” according to a 2010 report by the Kitty & Michael Dukakis Center for Urban & Regional Policy.
Some business groups and political leaders have called for immigration reform early on to prevent this shortfall.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recommended expanded immigration to help minimize anticipated worker shortages.
In 2006, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the government to come up with “sensible immigration reform” for the same reason.
U.S. President Barack Obama is still behind his initiative to pass comprehensive immigration reform, the DREAM Act, a bill to give undocumented workers a chance for legal status.
“Let’s stop expelling talent, responsible young people who can staff our research labs, start new businesses and further enrich this nation,” he said in last month’s State of the Union address.
So which industries are most likely to be short of workers?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the greatest need for higher-skilled workers during the next decade will be in healthcare, education, accounting and computer services.
“It may be wise for job seekers to focus on some of these industries for a better shot in the future,” said Angela Kim, a manager at a job placement agency for Koreans in New York.
Robert Koh, an immigration lawyer in New Jersey, says immigration reform will continue to face a major uphill battle in Congress this year, but expressed hope for some progress.
“We’re going to see more debate but it’s still good news that the issue is on the table for discussion,” he said.