Most Older Employees Say They Expect To Work Past Age 65

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2003 – To encourage workers approaching retirement to remain in the workforce, New York metropolitan area companies are offering a range of benefits and work options including flexible work hours (58%) and part-time employment (47%), according to a just-released survey conducted for The New York Times Job Market.

Beta Research Corporation, on behalf of The New York Times Job Market, conducted telephone interviews with 250 hiring managers and 200 full-time workers over the age of 50 in the New York metropolitan area.

More than one-quarter of hiring managers (27%) believe there will be a shortage of workers in the next five to 10 years. Among larger companies (those with 100 or more employees), 45% say they anticipate such a shortage. At the same time, only one-third of hiring managers (32%) say their companies have specific long-range plans to address this anticipated shortage of workers; 68% of the group say they do not have any plans in place.

Older workers may help fill this gap. More than half of all employees aged 50 or older (55%) indicate they expect to still be working past the age of 65. Within this group, a slightly larger proportion say they will continue working primarily by choice (49%), rather than due to financial necessity (41%). The remaining 10% cite a combination of choice and necessity.

Retention Efforts
When older employees were asked what type of work options would encourage them to put off retiring, their top choice was flexible hours -- the same option that the largest number of hiring managers say their companies currently offer.

Percent of workers age 50+ who view option as extremely/very important:
Flexible work hours – 42%
Option of working part-time – 35%
Unpaid leaves or sabbaticals – 28%
Phased-in retirement plans – 24%
Job sharing – 16%

According to the survey the presence of older workers is viewed as a valuable asset for a company. The vast majority of hiring managers (99%) agrees that older employees are important as mentors to younger employees, and that older employees possess a type of institutional memory that will be hard to replace after they retire (87%).

About Job Market
Job Market, the print and online recruitment services offering of The New York Times, provides employers and job seekers with comprehensive resources to streamline the recruitment process. Job Market appears in The New York Times every Sunday and is updated throughout the week at NYTimes.com, where job seekers can find job listings, career-related Times articles, exhaustive company research, a résumé database and valuable career resources.

Through the newspaper's national audience, which includes 5.0 million weekday readers and 5.5 million Sunday readers as well as the 1.4 million readers who visit NYTimes.com every day, The New York Times Job Market reaches a marketplace of high-quality professionals actively seeking new job opportunities or considering career moves.

Each week, The New York Times Job Market issues research on industry trends and workplace practices affecting employers and job seekers in the metropolitan New York region. On a monthly basis, The New York Times Job Market releases its Job Market Confidence Index. The Index tracks current conditions for recruitment in the New York metro area as well as future outlook for the coming six months. Copies of Job Market research reports are available upon request or at NYTimes.com/jobmarket. New York-based Beta Research Corporation, via random telephone interviews, independently conducts The New York Times Job Market research.

NOTE: Job Market research is not affiliated with the editorial operations of The New York Times newspaper and does not reflect the views of the newspaper or its journalists. Source all references to Job Market research as: The New York Times Job Market.

About The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2002 revenues of $3.1 billion, includes The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 16 other newspapers, eight network-affiliated television stations, two New York City radio stations and more than 40 Web sites, including nytimes.com and boston.com. For the third consecutive year, the Company was ranked No. 1 in the publishing industry in Fortune's 2002 list of America's Most Admired Companies. In 2003 the Company was named by Fortune as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

CONTACTS:
Diane McNulty, 212-556-5244; E-mail: mcnuldc@nytimes.com
Al Leach, 212-556-4483; E-mail: promo8@nytimes.com