I guess it never occurred to me how many baby boomers would be eligible to retire in the next 10 years. I attended a HR seminar (Society of Human Resource Management’s Generalist Program in Las Vegas, April 19-20) a couple of weeks ago and when the instructor shot out the number of 78 million, it took my breath away. Meaning, 78 Million skilled/trained employees we are all highly dependent upon will be leaving the workforce.

Baby Boomers were born between 1946-1964. Of course not all of them will be able to retire, a lot of them will have to keep working at least part time for financial reasons.

The next generation to try to fill the demand of the lost skilled workers will be Generation X, born between 1965-1976. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates there will be about 48 million Gen. X’ers that will try to fill these positions, but with huge skill gaps. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 60% of all future jobs require training that only 20% of current workers possess. Besides that scary statistic, what makes Generation X nervous is Generation Y coming into the work place.

Generation Y were born between 1977-1997. The Society for Human Resource Management says that 80 Million of them will be more educated in the more desirable positions that the baby boomers are leaving behind. This generation may not have the work place experiences under their belt, but they do possess knowledge and the ability to learn new things and put them into action.

Generation Y has the potential to significantly shape the work place over the next decade. They have grown up in an environment more diverse than previous generations ever could imagine. 39% of this generation have different racial or ethnic backgrounds. For employers the diverse experiences and cultures of Generation Y may smooth the differences in the work place – reducing discrimination claims.

This is also a group that grew up with email not U.S. Mail. Generation Y is more comfortable with technologically advanced products and services. This generation is enormously optimistic, educated, energetic and compassionate and they will be in high demand.

So, for the remaining baby boomers and Gen. X’ers we will have to accept all the differences and embrace the challenges the Generation Y will be bringing to the work place.