Upstate employers face worker shortage when boomers retire

BUFFALO - An exodus of retiring baby boomers from the work force over the next several years means places like schools and hospitals will be hanging out help-wanted signs.

But with a coinciding flight of 20- and 30-somethings from upstate, getting enough people to answer may be a challenge, according to a report released Wednesday by the Buffalo branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Roughly half a million upstate workers are projected to retire between 2000 and 2010, and nearly 800,000 more will stop working between 2010 and 2020. That means that even a region that has seen little job growth in recent years will experience a demand for new workers.