Human Resources committee  There are any number of them, and I think you've put your finger on it. It often tends to be the larger corporations that have the resources and that are in highly internationally competitive markets. It's pretty clear that whether their workforce is, by normal standards, relatively small and lean or larger, a competitive market will dictate that their employee workforce be highly trained and highly productive.

Human Resources committee  By that I mean you should have a policy that is targeted. You can have a big policy or whatever label you want to put it under, but it should be targeting a specific market failure. If you can't identify the market failure and what the policy is supposed to do, then I would say, don't do it.

Human Resources committee  I wish I had the answer to that. I have a couple of observations that I hope might help. I am trained as an economist, and we economist types do believe in the power and relevance of market-based solutions. But I think it's equally important to recognize that markets are imperfect—that's number one—and that there are market failures.

Human Resources committee  Yes, thank you. If we look back five or 10 years, when people like David Foot started to flag the enormity of the demographic challenge and what that meant for the labour force, I think one of the main motivating factors in worrying about aging from an economics viewpoint was the slowing growth in the labour force, which would slow economic growth as well.

Human Resources committee  Sure. I can take a bit of a run at that. May I also address the unemployment question that you raised because I think that's extremely important?

Human Resources committee  Absolutely.

Human Resources committee  I think the variable that you're picking on is the work conditions and so forth that have had a significant impact on that segment of the workforce. So I think that's absolutely a fair comment: it does vary by occupation and by industry, and so forth.

Human Resources committee  I'm very encouraged by that because I'm a little worried.

Human Resources committee  But let me start with your second issue. There's no question that the characteristics and the challenges facing individuals who are 50, 55, and 60, versus 70, and in the workforce, are quite different. But that's one of the reasons I also emphasized the issue for persons with disabilities, because people pick up a variety of limitations as they age.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely.

Human Resources committee  In fact, I'm undertaking research now with a team that is looking not at health issues generally but at specific disability issues. What you find is that there are a certain number of workers who are in some sense prefiltered out of jobs because of their health condition. Usually, it's what we would call a disability from the perspective of having a potential impact on their ability to the job, or perceived impact on their ability to do the job.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, and for the invitation to appear. My remarks are drawn from and really build upon the federal 2008 report of the expert panel on older workers, for which I was the research director, as well as my own research on older workers and disabilities. I have prepared some remarks, and I think I'm basically going to follow along the lines of those remarks that I prepared.