Thursday August 4, 2006

(Red Bank, NJ) - Barbara Davis Employment Services, a professional staffing agency recently announced the launch of a specialized "Baby Boomer" employment division, a program focusing on cutting edge training and job placement for the growing 50 plus market. Many "baby boomers" are seeking work, post retirement, and are able to gain cutting edge skills to remain competitive in a global workforce through offerings within this new initiative.

According to the U.S. Census of 2000, Monmouth County, NJ has the fifth largest number of senior citizens of the 21 counties in the state. Nationally, there are an estimated 143,376 temporary office workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As some of today's reported 60 million "baby boomers" decide to delay retirement or work part-time, the labor force is forecasted to grow over the next seven years.

"There are many economic factors at play that will continue to shift demographics surrounding the public and private employment sector," said Barbara Davis, President, Barbara Davis Employment Services. "The cuts in pension pay, coupled with the need for medical benefits, further emphasized by the fact that we are living longer are growth spurts that our agency is taking into consideration. The launch of our 'Baby Boomer' initiative will serve as a bridge to the 50 plus crowd who are making a transition into another phase of their life. It's filling a gap that has been widely ignored until now."

According to Davis, an estimated 75 percent of her 50 plus clients have remained in their first job placement longer than five years. As most analysts agree, focus and stability rank high among this age group compared with college graduates.

About half the respondents to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management said they are seeing many new workers who lack overall professionalism, written communication skills, or business knowledge.

Davis believes the qualities that "baby boomers" bring to the table are advantageous, yet she has found many aging workers are widely seeking expert advice on how to further advance their value as employees.

Davis explains, "After leaving a career as a household engineer, a client of mine re-entered the workforce with hopes of landing a job in the administrative field to help pay for her son's medical school tuition. She learned computer software skills in our job placement office and was soon placed in a temp to hire position. There are many more cases like this across the United States."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the greatest need for higher-skilled workers will be among healthcare, education, accounting, and computer services occupations. Davis, like many other professional staffing agencies, is paying particular attention to the accounting and healthcare fields offering testing in the areas of bookkeeping, payroll, medical coding, billing, and varied secretarial skills.

"It's true that we all age," said Davis. "But it's not slowing down those close to retirement. There is an interest from 'baby boomers' to continue landing jobs and employers should be equally compelled to stop, listen, and watch out for these potential worker bees. I think their offices will be buzzing with productivity as a result of their recruitment efforts."

To learn more on this topic, catch Barbara Davis' guest interview on the Welcome To SCAN Show airing on Cablevision Channel 77 and Lakewood Channel 77. Air dates and times will be scheduled for August. To contact Barbara Davis call 732-219-9552.