You lucky Boomers! Blessed with so many firsts over your life—the prospect of a childhood in the suburbs, career opportunities for women, sexual freedom, prolonged periods of prosperity—and now entering a next great stage of life with several strong gusts of wind blowing at your back.

The economic opportunities you face are unprecedented. The employment numbers tell an amazing story: beginning now, and continuing for the rest of your lives, the gap between the number of people who will be available to work and the demand for workers, particularly those with skills and experience, will continue to widen. Even with short-term economic ups and downs, if you want to continue to work, you will almost certainly be welcome to do so.

You have a nearly guaranteed market for your skills and energy—if you decide to remain an active member of the workforce. This change in the raw numbers brings a shift in power—those of you who want to work will have the option of reshaping your relationship with those who seek to employ you. The tightening talent pool presents an important opportunity to rethink the relationship between individuals and the organizations of work. And you will almost certainly ant to “work”— whether for pay, in barter, or in service to others—because you will have so much time to do so. You will be the first generation to enjoy a dramatically new life stage— a significant period of healthy, active non-childrearing adult life. Advances in health care, and resultant changes in life expectancy, will give you time that no other generation has yet had. By the time their children left home, members of past generations were largely “old”—ready to slow down. When your children are adults, most of you Boomers will still be essentially “young”—and full of capabilities and energy.