It’s Fourth of July time again and America is 233 years old—a prime number. Many of the Baby Boomers in the prime of their careers looking towards retirement are singing a different tune about when they’re 64. A number of factors including deflated 401(k)s, healthcare costs, non-traditional work schedules, and the economy are stalling their departures amidst changing workforce demographics.

It seems Baby Boomers are not retiring like lemmings and creating talent shortages. Here’s some important research around workforce age issues:

Watson Wyatt says that older workers are delaying retirement by at least three years.

The Center for State & Local Government Excellence reports similar findings for the millions of public sector workers they represent with 85% saying that employees are delaying retirement.

The Difference a Downturn can Make: Assessing the Early Effects of the Economic Crisis on the Employment Experiences of Workers from Boston College's Sloan Center on Aging & Work offers insights into engagement and the economic crisis across age groups.

Change in Employee Engagement by Age Group after Onset of Economic Crisis

The report Age & Generations: Understanding Experiences at the Work Place explores the question Think Age is Enough to Predict Worker Needs? And Engaging The 21st Century Multi-Generational Workforce features a definition of engagement and identifies key drivers across age groups.

Engaging talent is shown to be different things to different people. However, the business benefits are well worth the effort, as demonstrated by increased productivity and organizational performance.