America Is Running Out of Workers. Ahead of Ageism Awareness Day, Author Dan Pontefract Can Explain the Fix

Bestselling author of The Future of Work Is Grey offers data-backed commentary on the aging workforce as retirements accelerate and fall observances approach

VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA, September 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The numbers tell a story most employers are still ignoring. Workers aged 55 and older made up 24 percent of the US workforce in 2022, up from 10 percent in 1994, according to the US Census Bureau. Indeed’s Hiring Lab projects the American labour force will shrink by roughly 5.9 million workers by 2032, driven largely by aging and retirement. Employers say they cannot find talent. Meanwhile, the most experienced cohort in history is heading for the exits, often with a push.
Ahead of the United Nations International Day of Older Persons (October 1) and Ageism Awareness Day (October 9, led by the American Society on Aging), leadership strategist and bestselling author Dan Pontefract is available for interviews, commentary, and expert analysis on the workforce story hiding inside every labour headline.

Pontefract is the author of The Future of Work Is Grey (Page Two, May 2026), the first book to treat workforce aging as a strategy problem rather than an HR afterthought. His fifth TEDx talk, “What Work Gets Wrong About Age,” is now live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVtQSYlapPE

Dan can speak to:
• Age Debt: the compounding organizational cost of pushing out experienced workers—then paying to replace what walked out the door—and why 2026 is the year the bill comes due
• The Experience Dividend: why the employers winning the talent shortage are the ones treating workers over 55 as an asset class, backed by verified data
• Rivers, Rocks, and Rubies: a plain-language framework for the three eras of a modern career, and why ageism cuts in both directions (Pontefract was told at 27 he was too young for his job; he has the story, and the scars, to prove it)
• AI and the aging workforce: the sectors losing the most retirees are the ones AI helps least, and why artificial intelligence raises the value of experienced judgment rather than lowering it

Quote for use (attributable to Dan Pontefract):

“Employers keep insisting they cannot find talent while showing the most experienced workers the door. That gap has a name, Age Debt, and the bill is quickly coming due. What we keep calling a labor shortage is largely a shortage of imagination about who still counts as valuable. Experience is the one asset that appreciates with time, and American organizations are writing it off at precisely the wrong moment.”

About Dan Pontefract
Dan Pontefract is a leadership strategist, keynote speaker, and the author of six award-winning books, including The Future of Work Is Grey (2026) and Work-Life Bloom, winner of the 2024 Thinkers50 Best New Management Book award. A five-time TED speaker and Thinkers50 Radar honoree, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business and previously served as Chief Envisioner and Chief Learning Officer at TELUS. He writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review.

Media contact:
grey@danpontefract.com
danpontefract.com

Dan Pontefract
Pontefract Group
grey@danpontefract.com
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What Work Gets Wrong About Age – TEDx Talk by Dan Pontefract

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Written By: EIN Presswire