Addressing the Health Needs of Older Workers: As the Workforce Ages, Eaps will Begin to Confront Physical and Mental Health Issues Different from Those of Younger Workers (Focus: The Integration of Physical and Mental Health‪)‬

In the United States and in most developed countries across the globe, the population is aging. People 65 years of age and older are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and 78 million "baby boomers" (more than one of every four Americans) are right behind them. In 2006, nearly 8,000 boomers turned 60 each day (U.S. Census Bureau 2006). Although senior adults have old age in common, they are becoming increasingly diverse with respect to ethnicity, gender, country of origin, health status, sexual orientation, educational background, financial resources, and family structure. They are also changing the composition of the workforce. It is projected that by 2012, workers aged 55 and older will comprise 19.1 percent of the labor force, up from 14.3 percent in 2002. This is a reversal of the pattern of decline in the share of workers aged 55 and older in the workforce that persisted through the 1980s (Toossi 2004).