Encore: Work that matters in the second half of life.

“We’re used to seeing the aging work force described as a looming threat, a demographic drag with crippling repercussions for our economy,” begins an editorial in The Oregonian, Oregon’s largest newspaper.

But a groundbreaking report, “Everyone Matters,” from the Multnomah County Task Force on Vital Aging, helped the newspaper see the issue in a new way.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” the editorial continues, highlighting the report’s suggestion that businesses, governments and nonprofits “do a kind of mind-flip: Take this looming liability and convert it into a tremendous asset for our region.”

“Instead of bemoaning the shortage, employers should start making smart changes now to attract the huge talent pool that will still be available. That is, older and retired workers. Many will be eager for what psychologist Jay Bloom, who wrote the report, has called ‘returnment.’

“They’ll want to work again, albeit not necessarily in exactly the same jobs. Many will be looking for extra money, of course, or for health benefits. But the research also shows these “returnees” will be daring themselves to learn new things, try new challenges and mine for new meaning in their lives. Both as part-time workers and as volunteers, thus, they will be a bit choosy. “

The editorial concludes: “We have a deep, and deepening, pool of potential workers and volunteers in our community. The barriers to attracting them, it turns out, are mostly in our own minds, and our old set ways of doing business.”