By Radha Basu

IF YOU'RE middle-aged, been recently laid off and think early retirement is the best option in this gloomy market, hold your horses.

Embarking on a socially productive second career may be a better option than drifting through the next 30 years of life in languor, loneliness and even poverty.

Related link: » So you want to start an encore career? » A supporter of mid-lifers

Despite an epoch-changing recession, millions of older folk are flooding fields such as social services, health care and education in the United States, and finding both meaning and money in it.

More of this should happen here too, says American social entrepreneur-turned-author Marc Freedman, who has spent the past decade reinventing retirement in the US.

Not coincidentally, these same sectors are still actively hiring in Singapore. Last week, the Ministry of Education announced it needed 7,500 teachers and support staff this year. Nurses, therapists and social service professionals are also in demand.

'Despite the recession, there is an opportunity to bring together untapped resources and unmet needs in a way that benefits older people, industries short on talent and the broader society trying to adapt to demographic changes,' says Mr Freedman, who heads a non-profit organisation called Civic Ventures in San Francisco which helps mid-lifers begin second careers.

He will speak at the Reinventing Retirement Asia conference that opens tomorrow on 'encore careers', the subject of a book he penned in 2007.

Encore careers, he says, allow people to create a body of work in the second half of life that provides 'continued income, new meaning and social impact'. Beyond paying the bills, it involves 'using one's accumulated experience to solve social problems and create a better world'.

His push to help older folk get fresh jobs and discover life anew has come in the nick of time. The US is greying fast, with 10,000 baby-boomers - those born between 1946 and 1964 - turning 60 every day.

A comparative study, conducted by the US Census Bureau in 2000, showed that Singapore's elderly population will see a nearly fourfold increase between 2000 and 2030, compared to just a twofold rise in the US.

The world today, he says, is witnessing something much more profound than the reinvention of retirement.

'An entirely new stage of work and life is being crafted between the end of the middle years and the onset of true old age in the late 70s.'

Making the most of this transformation will require new thinking, new language, new social institutions and a new generation of public policies.

'This may sound daunting, but the potential payoff is enormous.'

Although not everyone is eschewing conventional retirement yet, the response so far has been heartening. A survey released last June showed that between five million and eight million Americans have already embarked on encore careers. Of those who have not, half aspired to.

Even if 5 per cent of the nearly 80 million baby-boomers who are moving into retirement embark on second careers that last a decade, it will be a 'windfall of talent', he says. 'The only comparable trend in the US to older people working longer is the influx of women into the labour force in the 60s and 70s.'

Soon, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports will release the results of a local survey on the aspirations, lifestyle choices and financial and employment issues facing baby-boomers here. According to preliminary results, nearly half the 2,700 people interviewed said they want to work for as long as they can.

But at a time when job losses and unemployment are at record highs, how realistic is it to assume that such well-meaning aspirations will morph into hard- nosed reality? With the recession wiping out US$2 trillion (S$3 trillion) worth of retirement plans, older folk in America and Singapore need to work, but can they?

Mr Freedman says there is cause for optimism. 'Even as we shed tens of thousands of jobs in areas like financial services, there is job growth in education, health care, environmental work. Positions in the encore career sector are growing and are more encouraging than those in the broader economy.'

The non-profit sector in the US, for instance, will see 640,000 vacancies in the coming decade. The long-term structural changes being witnessed now will also 'far outlast' any downturn.

While some opt for second careers out of choice, increasingly such a move is becoming a necessity for many, who are unable to afford 30 years of retirement.

So isn't he simply making a virtue out of necessity? Don't most older folk really want to retire and travel the world, if possible?

'Absolutely. Very few people want to work till they drop like they did in the 19th century,' he concurs. By the time they reach their 50s, most people are desperate for a break, being jaded from long hours of work and the responsibilities of raising families.

In the past, a break was not necessary, as most people died shortly after retirement. But as lifespans increase and people stay healthy and alert way into their 80s, the notion of a mid-life break is slowly becoming popular.

'There is need for people to take a sabbatical - like a mid-life gap year.' He suggests that people take a break after the end of their primary careers to invest in 'renewing and retooling'. This could mean going back to school.

In the world today

In the US, there has been a wave of new programmes helping individuals over 50 make seamless transitions to encore careers. Ten community colleges have created inexpensive pilots to help ageing boomers retrain for encore careers in education, health care or human services.

Harvard University recently launched a one-year fellowship for successful individuals to start a new chapter in their lives focused on solving major domestic and international problems ranging from poverty, homelessness and climate change.

Companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard have also started helping older staff begin new careers in teaching, social services or the environment.

Changing mindsets about ageing, meanwhile, is proving difficult.

Mr Freedman narrates the story of Ms Velma Simpson, a 50-something Colorado native who gave up her job peddling insurance, went to school to get a master's in social work and landed a government job to work with homeless people.

She found she was continuously given short-term assignments as her employers thought that, at her age, she 'had one foot out the door'.

Indeed, older folk here often complain that they are the last to be hired and first to be fired. Even during near-full employment here early last year, the community development councils were able to find jobs for only one in four workers aged 40 and above who approached them.

Therefore, he says creating better incentives for employers to hire older people, and building better pathways for retraining and re-entry into the labour market are critical.

'We've been much better at developing off-ramps for older workers, women and men alike, making it as easy as possible to exit the labour market. Where most nations fall short is in creating on-ramps, vehicles that make it easier for individuals to get training and assistance in returning to the workforce after caregiving duties and other responsibilities.'

These 'on-ramps' could be created through training programmes and monetary incentives for both employers and older folk.

But will it work in a place like Singapore where many of the baby-boomers come from less educated and poorer economic backgrounds? After all, as of 2005, more than half of the 862,000 people here aged 50 and above had only primary school qualifications or less.

He maintains: 'Many of the most important social and human services needs of the coming decades will require fundamental human kindness - mentoring children, caring for the frail, supporting the elderly. Individuals of any education level are in a position to provide these services.'

In the US, there are two government- sponsored programmes for older folk, mostly women, who work 20 hours a week providing one-on-one care for children and for frail seniors.

More than 40,000 individuals participate in these programmes each year, in return for a cash stipend and other benefits.

Indeed, those with rewarding encore careers come from all walks of life - from former presidents like Mr Jimmy Carter and Mr Bill Clinton, to hotshot former corporate lawyers who now help human rights victims get their day in court, to waitresses who found new meaning by morphing into guardian angels for kids in hospital.

Even if they don't want to save the world, finding a renewed purpose later in life can be a blessing, since many would have otherwise lived out their last years in loneliness.

Ultimately, an encore career - whatever it may be - puts older folk at the intersection of money, meaning and impact, he says.

'It's about reaping the maximum returns on experience. And paying it forward.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on January 07, 2009.