Participants in a seminar sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned that the traditional retirement age of 65 years may give way in the future to people spending progressively more of their later years in the work force. This may be necessitated by lower fertility rates in the developed countries, and facilitated by longer life spans.

• Due to the aging of baby-boomers, people 65 and older will comprise one-quarter of the population in developed countries by 2030 -- compared to 15 percent now.

• Labor shortages in the future will be most pronounced in Europe and Japan -- because of low fertility rates and immigration restrictions.

• The U.S., on the other hand, is maintaining population and worker levels with some help from immigrant labor.

• Developing countries such as Taiwan, North and South Korea, and Singapore will face similar labor shortages starting in the middle of this century.

Europe may be forced to rely on immigrant labor from North Africa and the Middle East over the next 30 years. Japan will have to look to labor from other Asian countries, some participants forecast.

Source: Geoffrey Smith, "Aging of Industrial World Calls for Changes," Washington Times, January 31, 2000.