If you are approaching retirement in a career/job you've held a long time,

[hedgehog]

do you think your employers have been hiring enough new people to be trained in time to replace you? I keep hearing from engineers in their 50's that there is no one in the pipe behind them.

[closeupready]

1. Lots of jobs in all industries are being outsourced to Asia -

China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan, etc. That is, when the entire industry hasn't been outsourced.

[still_one]

2. In my case after 28 years I was let go. They were already moving jobs to Asia for several years.

The rest they moved the work to another location where they allowed some hiring to occur. Our group had to hit the street.

That was in June 2012. I was fortunate found something pretty quick. Others are still looking

They gave use 2 months notice, warn act, and during that time we were required to document and do knowledge transfer if we wanted severance

[postulater]

3. My BIL just got laid off after 28.5 years. He was VP at a LARGE insurance co.

A new boss just came in and laid off a bunch of people, saying they didn't fit in the company's plans anymore.

I wonder if it has to do with the ACA since his company does a lot of federal business.

[Sherman A1]

4. It's pretty well known in my industry

that there is a missing generation. We have people in there late 50's to early 60's and we have some in their 20's and a few in their 30's, virtually no one in their 40's that should be stepping in to fill management, supervisory and senior staff jobs. This is all courtesy of 2 and 3 tier union contracts that were implemented in the 1980's. There is simply not enough warm bodies to fill the shoes of those retiring within the next 5 years, much less experienced and qualified personnel.

[hedgehog]

5. With sympathy for those describing layoffs (been there myself),

this is the situation I am hearing about. A lot of industries require very specific experience and skills, and entire cohorts are approaching retirement. If you're an experienced engineer in one industry, just try to make a switch to another industry! Companies know the value of experience when hiring, but seem reluctant to develop their own talent pool. The same situation applies all the way down the line. Companies canceled all the apprenticeship programs, then whine that they can't find skilled workers.

[HubertHeaver]

6. The young guys are in the pipe, but the pipe is located in India or somewhere in east asia.