The Lethal Librarian wrote this post back in March referring to the Occupational Outlook for Librarians written by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. I missed it at the time, but because it's relevant to the librarian shortage debate, I've decided to repost some of it.
It’s also interesting to note the language they [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics] use - they say in the March 2005 version of the page, “However, job opportunities are expected to be very good because a large number of librarians are expected to retire in the coming decade, creating many job openings.” In the version I saw today, it says “More than 3 in 5 librarians are aged 45 or older and will become eligible for retirement in the next 10 years, which will result in many job openings.” The difference is between “eligible to retire” versus “expected to retire” speaks to me, despite their identical claims about many job openings.
