Nowadays, there is a growing trend that signifies the increasing age of retirement from work in most countries. From my perspective, I personally believe that the drawbacks of this phenomenon, including health issues of elderly people and the increasing competition in the workplace, outweigh the benefits (create a more qualified labour force).
On the one hand, raising the retirement age fosters the quality of the workforce. As older workers have undergone many hardships and gained life experiences in their prime time, they can solve more problems relating to their jobs easily by adapting their own skills. As a result, it can not only improve productivity, but this also creates a better skilled workforce. For instance, in the education field, while most young teachers tend to rely on written textbooks for their lessons, older teachers are usually flexible in their teaching methods due to their useful techniques to make their lessons appealing to students, which they have been training for long.
On the other hand, there are several arising issues from this trend. First of all, health issues should be concerned as the elderly people have more possibilities to come down with some serious illnesses or diseases. In fact, there are some occupations which involve strength, such as engineering. However, old workers cannot be as flexible as young ones, which prevents them from doing strenuous work. If these workers try to carry heavy objects, they will receive serious injuries, which force them to rest and stay at home. As a consequence, this can lead to a lack of labour force as the majority of workers are elderly people, so the unfinished work cannot be completed. Furthermore, this trend can cause competition in the workplace between youngsters and the elderly. If it had not been for the young’s diligence and their willingness to devote themselves to the job, it would have been hard for them to overcome the harsh environment.
In conclusion, although there is an advantage of the trend, which is the experience of workers with a view to improving the standard of the workforce, it is clear that these are overshadowed by the downsides, relating to health concerns and rivalries in workers.