Could disabled workers benefit from the shrinking labour force?

Happy New Year to all!  I'm Scott Savoy, editor of writing services at www.sterlingcreations.ca. 
A brand new year and I have hope and faith that all will be well.  I thank you all for your feedback and comments and today, I am delighted to bring you an editorial by our president Donna J. Jodhan. 
Today, Donna talks about building bridges and breaking down barriers.
I wish you a great day and weekend.
 
 
Could disabled workers benefit from the shrinking labour force?
By Donna J. Jodhan
 
A very interesting question for us to ponder this day but it should not come as either a shocker or shaker.  With more and more aging baby boomers poised to exit the labour force, many are wondering if employers would be willing to drop their attitude barriers and look to the disabled persons labour force for help.  There still exists that in tangent barrier that smacks of an attitude problem when it comes to employers not being very willing or ready to hire disabled persons. 
 
With the present economic uncertainty, you may see that some pre-retirees are probably going to stay on a tad longer in the workplace, and you may find that more retirees would be seeking to find jobs to help supplement their incomes but this does not negate the fact that there is going to be a labour shortage sooner than later.  As a matter of fact, many countries have already started to experience labour shortages due to employees taking early retirement.

 

Here in North America and up until now, many companies have chosen to outsource hundreds of thousands of jobs to India; jobs that relate to call center types of services and jobs that can easily be handled by our disabled labour force.  With our economy in the early stages of recovery, I am wondering if this would not be a good time for companies to start bringing back their call centers from India and making them available to our disabled labour force?  It would be a great way to stimulate the economy but more importantly it would be a preamble to tapping into an untapped resource that can be easily trained and readied to fill the gap as more and more persons reach the retirement age.
 
 So, here is the question once again.  Could disabled workers benefit from the shrinking labour force?
I for one will be watching very closely.  Whatever the outcome, it will be very interesting to see how things play out.

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan wishing you a terrific day and weekend.
To reach me, please send an email to info@sterlingcreations.ca and I would be delighted to send you an electronic copy of our latest newsletter.
 
Here is a complete list of where you can view Donna's blogs and editorials.
Donna Jodhan!  Advocating accessibility for all
http://www.donnajodhan.blogspot.com 
a weekly feature on important answers to consumers concerns
http://www.sterlingcreations.com/businessdesk.htm
Weekly blogs for language professionals and accessibility consultants
http://www.sterlingcreations.ca/blog/blog.html
A monthly editorial on issues on diversity
http://www.diversityintheworkplace.ca
a monthly editorial on business issues and concerns
http://www.sterlingcreations.ca/magazine.html 
weekly editorials on accessibility issues in Canada
http://www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php
Editorials:  An International perspective on issues of accessibility and disability
http://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com (under the editorials section, an international perspective)
A general perspective on issues of access and accessibility
http://numpadplus.com/blog/?page_id=7