In a recent report called "Buddy, Can you Spare a Job?" the MetLife Mature Market Institute provided new evidence that Vibrant Women (the smart, professional women 50+ we gather at VibrantNation.com) are facing unique employment challenges as they age. Overcoming those challenges will require both those women and their potential employers to embrace change in radical new ways.

The problems for Boomers are severe

The MetLife study makes clear what was occasionally sugar-coated by Maria Shriver's recent "Woman's Nation" project: Boomer women remade the workplace, but the workplace has not done them similar favors. Half of the MetLife survey respondents who are employed reported that they plan to defer their retirement to make up for the recession's impact on their retirement savings. And for those who are trying to make ends meet without a full-time job, MetLife reports that "self-employed" may be the new way of saying "can't find a job." Even where there are jobs, age discrimination in the hiring process is accepted as fact by Boomers and tacitly admitted by many employers.

Demographics make this a problem we have to solve

Baby Boomers represent the fastest-growing (practically the only growing) demographic in the workplace. From 1996-2006 the number of employees 55+ increased by 59%. From 2006-2016 that number will increase by another 47% (to 37 million civilian employees). During the same periods, the number of employees under 55 is either declining or growing by well under 10%. When the economy recovers from the current recession, the only way it will support a growing workforce will be by hiring older workers. But that doesn't mean Boomers will see a return to the glory days of employment they remember from the 1980s or 1990s – or the benefits they thought seniority would bring them.

Boomers need to embrace change in the workplace

The MetLife study identifies "Seven Mistakes that Keep Aging Boomers Unemployed." At a general level, these mistakes each represent a form of denial – denying that the workplace has changed dramatically is not going to reward them just for having put in their time. That is regrettable, but technology and globalism have changed the workplace too dramatically in the last 15 years to expect much difference.

For Vibrant women, the sad reality is that all the hard work and loyalty they offered their employers is not rewarded. In the workplace, past performance is no longer an indicator of future success.

Reinvention is the name of the game, and the companies who help employees embrace it throughout their careers will get more out of women and Boomer women in particular.

Recent posts at VibrantNation.com like 8 ways not to act old at work confirm that relevance as an employee requires constant adaptation and change.

The kind of reinvention MetLife describes is not the feel-good sense of limitless opportunity often conveyed by the self-help movement, the "Laws of Attraction" or even More magazine's "Reinvention Convention." Those movements each contribute in some ways to reinforcing the idea that opportunity will come to those who want (or deserve) it most.

The best thing about the MetLife study is that it provides detailed examples of how both employers and employees can change to get the most from each other. Employers have to learn how to better access talent from Boomer women. And Boomer women need to adapt to both reduced expectations at work (seniority alone is no longer rewarded) and a radical degree of adaptation and change.

And for companies who want to do business with both parties in this fast-growing space (and there should be lots of you), pay attention to the growth numbers above. Whoever can help Boomers (the fastest-growing generation of employees) get more jobs and help employers get more out of Boomers will have a pretty good job themselves. more flash forward»