How can the United States ensure that health and income security programs are adequate for an aging workforce as retirement approaches? What risks do older workers face? What if they lose their jobs or become disabled or ill? How should public policy be shaped to ensure that workers' needs are met in retirement?

These questions are explored in a new book, Ensuring Health and Security for an Aging Workforce , published by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (2001) and co-edited by Richard Burkhauser, professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, and three of his colleagues from around the country.

"As the baby boom generation approaches retirement age, the number of older workers in this country is going to almost double over the next 20 years," says Burkhauser, an economist and specialist on how public policies affect the economic behavior and well-being of vulnerable populations. "This bulge in the workforce will require a transformation in how public and private programs support these individuals at work and in retirement."

The 575-page book consists of a group of papers commissioned by the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization, and presented in January 2000. The papers, written by leading social scientists and policy analysts around the nation, explore how the growing number of older workers will impact the current mix of public and private institutions designed to ameliorate the economic consequences of ill-health, disability, unemployment and retirement. They focus on social programs, including workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, disability insurance and Medicare as well as employer provided disability and health insurance programs. Intended for public and private policy-makers,

economists, health professionals and health scholars, as well as older workers, Ensuring Health and Security for an Aging Workforce details the risks that aging baby boomers face; income and health coverage in the face of job loss; chronic illness and disability; whether retiring later is possible or desirable; and how gaps in health coverage can be filled. The book ($45 cloth, $27 paper) includes numerous tables and charts, commentary, footnotes, references and an index.

The book is co-edited by Burkhauser, Peter Budetti of Northwestern University, Janice Gregory of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Industry Committee, which represents the employee benefits interests of the country's largest employers, and H. Allan Hunt of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.