Because of the low unemployment rate, many local employers are already tapping into the retiree market by offering flexible hours and benefits for flex-time employees. Progressive companies often seek out retiree employees as they have found they generally have a strong work ethic.

They know the system and just need some upgrades and enhancements. It's not that we are rewarding a bad company. They are a good company. But we just need to make the system work better, so you won't have to wait so long for your bags.

Southwest Florida will capture its fair share of boomers. But we'll have to deal with transportation issues, work-force housing issues, water-supply issues, and health-care and retirement care will get reshaped.

It's sunny. We have no income tax. I think a lot of boomers will stay put and get second and third homes, and we're a candidate for that.

Long-term unemployment can make any worker progressively less employable, even after the economy strengthens.

I was on the dole for a very short time, for about two weeks. I didn’t want to be lining up in the dole office. I hated that place, didn’t want nothing to do with it. I didn’t feel I belonged there. The two times I turned up, I bitterly resented it and I swore I’d never go back there. I really didn’t like the whole format of it, or the institutionalization it entailed, or the way they make you feel somehow guilty about it all. That’s your right – you’ve worked, or your parents have worked. If the state can’t provide jobs, then what the fuck are you supposed to do? In many ways I completely understand people taking to illegal activities, because frankly there’s no other way to make any kind of money at all, or get yourself out of the dumps. For me, personally, I could never get involved with theft, I can’t do it.