Veterans and Baby Boomers

In the last decade most veterans have retired from the workplace. Veterans are often subdivided into 3 groups:

•Depression Era, born 1912 to 1921, came of age 1930 to 1939
•World War II, born 1922 to 1927, came of age 1940 to 1945
•Post-War Cohort, born 1928 to 1945, came of age 1946 to 1963
The post-war cohort had the best work and education opportunities because of the post-war economic boom. Members of this group highly value security, comfort, and familiar activities and environments.

Characteristics of the Baby Boomers Generation
The Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and have the largest population of any generation. In their youth they were open-minded and rebellious but became more conservative in their 30’s and 40’s. Job status and social standing are important to this generation who tend to be optimistic, ambitious, and loyal, and believe that employment is for life. They created the concepts of “workaholic” and “superwoman”.

Baby Boomers are sometimes divided into 2 subgroups as life experiences, attitudes, behaviours and society were very different in 1964 compared to 1946:

•Boomers I or The Babyboomers, born 1946 to 1954, came of age 1963 to 1972

•Boomers II or Generation Jones, born 1955 to 1964, came of age 1973 to 1983

The Civil Rights movements and the Vietnam War was very significant to the Boomers I while social issues such as AIDS had more effect on Boomers II.