States are the laboratories for experiments to fix the mismatch between boomers eager to begin encore careers and employers who are still slow to welcome them, reports writer John Greenya in Miller-McCune magazine.

Greenya quotes Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who wrote 65 years ago: “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory, and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”

The article, “States Applaud ‘Encore Careers,’” highlights efforts in California and Arizona. For example, California’s EnCorps Teachers Program is helping fast-track older workers into jobs teaching math, science and technology in public schools.

Arizona’s Center for Workforce Transition, in partnership with community colleges, helps residents make midlife and late-life career changes. The Arizona Mature Workers Web site offers employers free job postings for older workers for 30 days.

Other states that are developing mature worker programs are Arkansas, New York, Wyoming, Maine, Maryland, Michigan and Massachusetts. Both presidential candidates support efforts to engage older Americans in national service efforts, which can serve as an effective pathway to encore careers.

“For now, the greatest strides are taking place at the state level,” Shirley Sagawa, a leader in the national service movement, told Greenya. “We expect the policies that prove successful to serve as models for the federal government in the future.”