Generational turnover is taking place over the next 24 months, new LERN research shows. The generational turnover will be a main 
theme for the annual State of Lifelong Learning talk and written report at the big LERN conference in Orlando Nov. 21-23.
Generational ‘transition’ has now become ‘turnover.’ The shift over the next 2 years is dramatic. It’s a big reason why LERN is getting so many requests for information on Gen Y, technology, and new ways of working.
This is the last year in which Baby Boomers will be the largest generation of working age. By 2020 the percentage of people in the workforce who are Boomers will plummet to around 14%.
Next year all three generations – – Gen X, Gen Y and Boomers – – will numerically be about the same in the workforce.
And just 24 months from now, sometime in 2016, Gen Y will be the largest generation of working age in society. By 2020 Gen Y will be about 55% of people in the workforce.
Gen X, a much smaller generation than either the Boomers or Gen Y, will remain around 35% of people in the workforce.
The chart says it all. And what’s dramatic if not traumatic is the period between 2014 and 2016- – the next 24 months.
With Gen Y an ever greater presence in the workplace both the way people work, and the way people learn, will undergo a big change.
Gen Y are people born 1980 through 1999, about 82 million.
Gen X are people born 1965 through 1979, 49 million.
Boomers are people born 1946 through 1964, now around 75 million.
All of the Gen Xers are already of working age, so the total number of Gen Xers will remain relatively the same for the next 15 years.
Not all of Gen Y are yet of working age, so the total number of Gen Yers in the workplace will increase over the next ten years.
And the Baby Boomers are retiring. Demographics expert Julie Coates, who was interviewed on generations in the April issue of Psychology Today, says that a number of Baby Boomers will continue to work beyond age 65, but much fewer of them will work past age 70. Even if twice as many Boomers as those in previous generations work beyond age 70, Boomers will still be less than 20% of people in the workforce by 2020.
The 2012 data: http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/generations-workplace-united-states-canada
The 2020 estimates: http://info.hoganassessments.com/blog/bid/171186/The-Generational-Workforce-of-the-Future
Another data chart appeared in The New York Times with ages of people that confirmed the above data.
The chart connecting the two data sets showing the dramatic change between 2014 and 2016 was done by LERN professional staff.
The new environment for lifelong learning programs will be a big theme for the big LERN conference in Orlando Nov. 21-23. Click here for info and be there.