States consider work options for boomers

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Several U.S. states have decided that one option for dealing with the record number of retiring workers is to ask them, perhaps, not to retire.

In California, where the state is facing a shortage of teachers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Chief Executive Officer of Paramount Picture Sherry Lansing have begun the EnCorps Teaching Program to help retirees start a second career in teaching.

The state will need 33,000 new science and math teachers by 2017 and faces a doubling of their over-60 population by 2020, USA Today reported Friday.

Maryland, New York, Massachusetts and Arizona have begun initiatives to keep baby boomers busy during their retirement years and eight other states are working with the National Governors Association to brainstorm other work options for the aging population.

"Not everybody has three pensions and an IRA plan," Melanie Starns, who advises the Arizona governor's office on the aging population, told the newspaper.

The numbers of retiring U.S. workers will increase dramatically in the next few decades. The oldest U.S. baby boomers, totaling 79 million, turn 62 this year, USA Today said.