Young workers to baby boomers: Will you retire already?

There’s a multigenerational traffic jam on the upper rungs of America’s career ladder.

As more baby boomers put off retirement, millennials and Gen Xers are finding it harder to move up into middleand higher-level jobs, according to a USA TODAY/LinkedIn survey and interviews with recruiters.

Partly as a result, many younger workers are job-hopping as they seek bigger titles and higher pay. That’s making it tougher for companies to hold onto promising employees and hurting their businesses in some cases, the survey shows.

“This is the first time ever that five different generations are in America’s workforce at the same time, from Gen

Forty-one percent of millennials – and 30% of all adults – said they’ve found it difficult to move up in their fields because boomers are waiting longer to retire.

Zers up to baby boomers,” says LinkedIn career expert Blair Decembrele. “It’s no surprise that there are some growing pains.”

To be sure, boomers (age 54-74) bring knowledge and experienceto the workplace, and many companies are trying to coax them into staying on as they struggle to find workers amid unemployment that’s at a 50-year low. Yet their prevalence in the labor force is tamping down the economy’s overall productivity, according to a study by Moody’s Analytics. That’s likely because of their reluctance to adopt new technology, the study says. .

Forty-one percent of millennials – and 30% of all adults – said they’ve found it difficult to move up in their fields because boomers are waiting longer to retire, according to a USA TODAY/LinkedIn survey of 1,019 working professionals in September.

“That’s what I’m hearing a lot,” says Jeanne Branthover, co-head and managing partner of executive search firm DHR International’s New York office. Job seekers “are happy with the company but they’re being blocked by the person above them.”

Nearly a quarter of workers surveyed by USA TODAY/LinkedIn changed jobs in the last 12 months and 30% are planning to do so in the next year. A survey by Jobvite, a recruiting site, found that 61% of employees rank career growth opportunities as the top factor when seeking a new job.

Lauren Jablonski, 36, of Franklin Square, New York, worked as a substitute teacher and teacher’s aide at a Long Island elementary school for a couple of years. Although she has a Master’s in education, she couldn’t get promoted because teachers in their 50s with tenure had no plans to retire.

“It was extremely frustrating when you get to work every day and you’re giving it your all and you still can’t get to that next level,” Jablonski says. She left teaching several years ago and since has worked as a marketing manager, editor and martial arts instructor.

More than half of all U.S. workers plan to work past 65 or not retire at all, according to a survey last year by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.

Boomers living, working longer

In October, 20.4% of Americans 65 and older were working or looking for jobs, up from 12.4% in 1999 and the largest portion since 1961.

Boomers can toil longer because they’re healthier and need to finance longer lifespans. Many saw their 401(k) investments hammered by the Great Recession of 2007-09 or took lower-paying jobs after getting laid off.

Marc LeVine, 63, of Freehold, New Jersey, depleted his savings and 401(k) accounts when sales at his staffing business plummeted during the recession. When he finally got a full-time job in 2014, the salary was 36% lower than his prior income.

“I enjoy what I do. I don’t know what I would do being retired,” says LeVine, who is now a recruiter for a company that makes industrial control systems.

LeVine says he plans to work well into his 70s and doesn’t feel guilty about taking up a spot that might otherwise be filled by a millennial or Gen Xer (ages 39-53). “We all have to make a living,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Want our jobs? You’ll have to beat us at our game!”

AARP Vice President Susan Weinstock says boomers have the “soft skills” employers are seeking. “They’re calm under pressure. They’re problem solvers. They listen better.”

Experts say a multigenerational workforce can boost productivity if properly leveraged. Some companies are splitting C-suite jobs in two, giving younger employees some of the duties in a sort of half-step promotion so they won’t leave, Branthover says.

Others, like Virginia-based Newport News Shipbuilding, have started mentoring programs that encourage boomers to impart their knowledge to younger workers while millennials show older workers how to use new technology.

The share of workers leaving the company has fallen sharply this year.

“We’re going to need (younger workers) to move into leadership roles,” Jacobs says.