tonyw
Well-Known Member
so sez a study from my alma mater, so of course it is infallible and anyone who says otherwise is a terrarist coddling, 'merica hating, commie pinko socialist scumbag who should be shipped off to Gitmo!
http://www.las.illinois.edu/news/20..._content=3590022&utm_campaign=LAS News Online
Because of the intensity of their jobs, air traffic controllers in the United States are required to retire at age 56. But this poses problems because most of the 14,800 air traffic controllers in the U.S. were hired in the mid-1980s when President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 controllers who had gone out on strike. Now, many of the controllers hired in the 1980s are nearing mandatory retirement age, and government reports have warned that the upcoming wave of retirements could undermine the safety of the nation’s aviation system.
In the University of Illinois study, Kramer’s team turned to Canada, where the mandatory retirement age is 65. They compared Canadian air traffic controllers from two age groups—the older controllers (ages 53 to 64) and their younger peers (ages 20 to 27). They found that the older air traffic controllers performed just as well as their young colleagues on complex, job-related tasks.
“The question we were interested in was whether older controllers could continue to do the job,” says Kramer, who conducted the study with graduate student Ashley Nunes. “If so, perhaps we could keep these people on the job for a little longer, and this way provide more time for the transition and appropriate training of new controllers.”
Obviously, keeping the older controllers around is nothing more than a stopgap because new people will be required in order to replace them sooner or later. But increasing the retirement age might help.
http://www.las.illinois.edu/news/20..._content=3590022&utm_campaign=LAS News Online
Because of the intensity of their jobs, air traffic controllers in the United States are required to retire at age 56. But this poses problems because most of the 14,800 air traffic controllers in the U.S. were hired in the mid-1980s when President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 controllers who had gone out on strike. Now, many of the controllers hired in the 1980s are nearing mandatory retirement age, and government reports have warned that the upcoming wave of retirements could undermine the safety of the nation’s aviation system.
In the University of Illinois study, Kramer’s team turned to Canada, where the mandatory retirement age is 65. They compared Canadian air traffic controllers from two age groups—the older controllers (ages 53 to 64) and their younger peers (ages 20 to 27). They found that the older air traffic controllers performed just as well as their young colleagues on complex, job-related tasks.
“The question we were interested in was whether older controllers could continue to do the job,” says Kramer, who conducted the study with graduate student Ashley Nunes. “If so, perhaps we could keep these people on the job for a little longer, and this way provide more time for the transition and appropriate training of new controllers.”
Obviously, keeping the older controllers around is nothing more than a stopgap because new people will be required in order to replace them sooner or later. But increasing the retirement age might help.
