PEORIA — The changing of the guard in the American workplace may leave employers a little short.

Do the math, said Marvis Meyers, a vice president for training and organizational development with the St. Louis-based AAIM Employers’ Association, at a program held recently at the Peoria Civic Center.

“There are about 73.5 million baby boomers,” she said, referring to those born between 1946 and 1965.

Next in line are Generation Xers, born between 1965 and 1979. The problem? There are only 48.1 million of them, said Meyers.

The bigger problem? “Boomers are leaving the workplace, and there are not enough people to fill all the positions,” she said.

As baby boomers reach the traditional retirement age of 65, many are stepping down — but not all. In 2011, 45 percent of the boomers that had reached age 65 had retired, but 24 percent were stilling working full time, said Meyers.

An economic recession that cut into many workers’ retirement savings has kept many boomers on the job. According to a recent Gallup poll, nearly half of baby boomers working today say they don’t expect to retire until they’re 66 or older.

Ten percent of those boomers say they’ll never retire.

There’s another group in the U.S. workplace: Generation Yers, those born between 1980 and 2000. There are 80 million people in this age group, said Meyers.

“This is a group that’s high performance as well as high maintenance,” she said. While long on numbers, the Generation Y group is short on experience, said Meyers.

“This is a group that wants different things out of work,” she said.

In an article by David Koeppel in the Fiscal Times, generational conflicts have always been present in the office, but experts say baby boomers and Generation Y have characteristics that can clash.

Gen Y tends to have a different set of work-life values than boomers, noted Koeppel, pointing out that while boomers tend to be work-obsessed, younger workers expect flexible schedules that allow them to pursue activities outside the office.

Regardless of differences in approach by the two groups, the Generation Y group remains too inexperienced to take over all the positions held by boomers, said Meyers. “Over the next 10 years, it’s going to be extraordinarily challenging. There will be a real dearth in the work force,” she said.

Meyers said one of her jobs is toget the word out to employers aboutthe workplace gap that’s down theroad. “The experienced work forcewill shrink. Organizations will find themselves struggling if they’re willfully blind to the demographics,” she said.

To counter the experience shortage, Myers counsels companies to hold on to the talent they have. “We need to teach managers how to engage employees, to get them excited about the job,” she said.

Larry Timm, vice president of AAIM Employers’ Association in Peoria, said employers don’t have unlimited time when it comes to reaching workers. “Usually you have about six months to engage them,” he said.

Businesses need to invest more in work force planning, said Meyers.

“An employee wants to be motivated. A company has to create an environment that gives employees some control — at least a voice,” she said.

“We can’t turn people into machines. Businesses are going to win with (workers’) brains and hearts,” said Meyers.

Steve Tarter is Journal Star business editor. Tarter’s phone number is 686-3260, and his email address is starter@pjstar.com.