A new information source, the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) program for Iowa, shows:

• The workforce is aging. From 1999 through 2002, an increasing percentage of the workforce was 45 years and older. The proportion of people 65 years and older who continue working has also increased, but only slightly.
• Industries in which more than 1-in-5 workers were 55 years and older in 2002 include: local/suburban transit, real estate, mining and quarrying — nonmetallic, and educational services. Of these, only the educational services industry employed more than 3,000 older workers.
• An example of an industry with a high turnover rate for workers 55 years and over is amusement and recreation.
• An example of an industry with a low turnover rate for older workers is the health services industry.
• Industries where workers 65 years and over are most likely to be employed include health services, business services, and wholesale trade — nondurables.
• On average, in 2002, for workers 65 years and over, 2,864 jobs were created and 4,249 were lost.
• Of the industries that employed more than 500 workers 65 years and older, the highest paying was industrial and commercial machinery ($2,829 a month). The industry with the highest average monthly earnings in 2002 for workers 65 years and older was security/commodity brokers ($4,305), but the number of such workers was only 115.