After enduring five months of unemployment last year, the 60-year-old posted her resume on a couple of Web-based jobs boards, convinced her age would work against her.

She was wrong.

Within months, she landed a job at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a marketing communications expert.

"I'm delighted," she says. "Age isn't a factor here. They wanted someone who could step right in, and I could."

She was the beneficiary of a new federal effort aimed at warning both the public and private sectors of a looming "brain drain" that experts say will accelerate as 78 million baby boomers age.

"It's going to cause a lot of problems and cost a lot of money to replace these people who know so much," says David DeLong, a research fellow at the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of "Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce." "They know how to get things done."

The U.S. Government Accountability Office says 50 percent of today's work force will be gone within five to 10 years. It's estimated that half of the 3.2 million leading-edge baby boomers who turn 62 this year will take early retirement.

Federal and state governments are most affected, but the ranks of academe also are heavy with older workers. Doctors as well as nurses are retiring at rapid rates.

Five years ago, the notion of a brain drain and worker shortage would have seemed preposterous, says Tammy Erickson, president of the Concours Institute, a Boston-based think tank for the human resources industry.

"We're going to have a shortage of skills and talent unless we make changes," says Erickson, author of "Retire Retirement: Career Strategies for the Boomer Generation," to be published next month by Harvard Business Press. "If you want to grow, you've got to hold on to more older people with knowledge."

The national Society for Human Resource Management found in a recent survey that 75 percent of HR executives say the most critical challenge of American business is finding and retaining knowledge workers.

"The federal work force is older, five years or so on average, so they are seeing it first," said Susan Meisinger, president of the group. "We're just starting to see the bigger companies taking steps to keep older people. But it needs to be done."

More companies are trying to get folks to delay retirement, or work part time, or come back to mentor after they retire, said Mike Haberman, 56, of Marietta, Ga., vice president of Omega HR Solutions.

"Small businesses are hurting, too," he said. "They're havng a difficult time replacing them. You are hearing cries of woe from all over."

Many hospitals and doctors' offices are taking steps to "retain the mature nurse work force," says Jodi Weber of the Georgia Nurses Association. "There's a lot of talk about it because of the shortage of nurses." Other companies, such as AXA Advisors, a financial services firm, and Rollins Inc., the pest control giant, are taking steps, too.

"We want to keep the older salespeople or technicians who're good and trusted," said Henry Anthony, the 56-year-old vice president of human resources for Rollins.

"The business is built on relationships. It's clearly in our best interest to hang on to people we've spent so much on training and developing them."

George Diamantis, a top executive of AXA Advisors in Atlanta, said that more older workers are being asked to mentor newcomers and not "retire completely."

At Georgia Power, some retired folks come back to work on special projects and help with training, said Heyward Williams, training and work force planning manager.

"Over the past few years, we've recognized this 'brain drain' and we're taking steps," he says. "We want to capture a lot of that knowledge that's being lost."

"There are core competencies we can't afford to lose," he said.

A growing recognition of the potential costs of lost knowledge has led to a proliferation of Web-based age-related job boards -- matchmaking sites aimed at hooking up workers with companies that want to hire.

Such sites include Dinosaur Exchange, Retired Brains and Seniors4Hire.

Navy veteran Ted Daywalt, 58, runs VetJobs in Roswell, Ga. It's designed to help transitioning military personnel find jobs, he said.

"Companies are losing corporate knowledge, customer contacts and corporate culture. I've been hollering this for five years," Daywalt said. "And they're starting to say, 'Hey, we need some experienced people.'"

Even with the job boards, it can take time to find a job.

Rick Diguette, 53, of Tucker, Ga., quit his job as a speechwriter for state officials. He thought his experience and a master's degree in English would make finding a new position easy.

"Over nine months, I applied for, maybe, 80 positions and had three interviews," he said. He recently landed a job as a teacher in a local college.

"I'm not alone," he said. "Employers need to be reminded that there are a lot of older people who still have a lot to contribute."

Martin Suenson, who runs Dinosaur Exchange, says U.S. companies lose thousands of dollars in experience every time a 20-year employee departs.

"The companies of the Western world are facing a massive brain drain as senior employers leave," he says. "As a result, young staff today will often lack the mentors to coach them."

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Powered by Yellowbrix.

More older workers are going back to school.

We've got employment strategies for 50-somethings.

What's everyone talking about at ThirdAge? Find out with twice-weekly issues of our Community Connections newsletter, where real readers like you voice their opinions!