At a time when many industries are fighting just to stay even, elder care is one sector where the outlook remains decidedly bullish. Already, the combined elder care / disability services industry ranks as one of the largest employers in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor. It is also the leading industry for job growth, thanks in part to a proliferation of new franchise opportunities in the sector.

Services provided through the elder care / disability services industry span both the conventional health care sector and health assistance services, according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI). "Traditionally, elder care / disability services providers have referred to nursing care facilities, residential care facilities and home health care agencies," said a spokesman for the group.

However, other settings and service providers have been gaining in importance and now play a large and growing role in this industry. Among the new non-traditional settings are private households that directly employ direct-care workers, self-employed direct-care workers, employment services that hire out direct-care workers to nursing and residential care facilities, and community-based establishments (such as day programs) that provide non-residential, non-medical and/or rehabilitation personal and social assistance services and supports to the elderly and persons with disabilities, according to PHI.

The diversity of opportunities that exists in this sector is well illustrated in the Directory section of The Franchise Handbook. Among the dozens of franchises listed under the heading of Senior Care/Services are businesses that provide full-service medical and non-medical home health care and supplemental staffing, non-medical solutions for everyday needs, services to help family members transition aging parents and relatives into new living arrangements, and more.

Health care has been one of the strongest growth segments in the U.S. economy over the past five years. In some states, it has been the only industry to show significant growth in jobs, a key driver of the economy at large. Nationally, the Labor Department projects that U.S. employment will grow 10% overall for the period 2006 to 2016. However, it projects total health care and health assistance jobs to grow at two-and-a-half times that pace, up 24%. Within the eldercare/disability services segment, projected job growth is even more robust: 35%.

What’s behind the growth creating such fertile ground for new franchise businesses? The short answer is demographics. There is a longevity revolution underway in the United States, Europe and many other parts of the world. Advances in science, medicine and technology over the past century have increased average life expectancy to almost 80 years, and Ken Dychtwald, a gerontologist and founder of the consulting firm Age Wave, believes it can be extended by another 40 to 60 years in the future. Simply put, the longer we live, the more elder care services we’ll need.

With the massive baby boom generation set to begin turning 65 next year, the number of Americans in the 65-plus demographic will climb to more than 70 million within 20 years. Eventually, many of them will become potential customers for elder care providers, and they should be better-situated to pay for those services than any previous generation.

Americans in their 50s and older currently earn more than $2 trillion in annual income, own more than 70 percent of the nation’s personal financial assets and represent 50 percent of all discretionary spending power. "In fact, their per capita discretionary spending is two-and-a-half times more than the average of younger households and is particularly strong in the financial services, health care, leisure, wellness and beauty products categories," Dychtwald said.

The scope of opportunities to be met will be vast, and it will increase as the percentage of the total population aged 50 and up continues to grow. According to "The Maturing of America," a report described as the most comprehensive ever on the aging-readiness of America, fewer than half of U.S. cities and counties have plans in place to meet the needs of aging baby boomers.

That is significant on two levels. First, it underlines the extent to which the host of emerging age-related challenges and opportunities has yet to be addressed. Second, it suggests that the task of meeting those challenges and seizing those opportunities will fall largely to companies in the private sector, including many franchise businesses.

"America and its communities are aging rapidly," according to the report, which was led by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) and funded by the MetLife Foundation. "As the baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964 reaches retirement age, the number of Americans over age 65 is expected to reach 71.5 million by 2030-twice their number in the year 2000," the report states. "At that point, one out of every five people in the nation will be an older adult."

The report highlights a number of areas that should provide ongoing opportunities for franchise businesses, starting with health care. Access to affordable health care and preventive services is a growing concern among older adults, a population segment at greater risk of suffering from acute and chronic diseases. In one-third of communities surveyed for the n4a report, older adults did not have access to a range of such services, including health education, community-based health screenings and counseling on prescription drug programs.

Opportunities are also emerging in other areas of the senior market. For example, an estimated 4 million older adults in the U.S. are currently affected by food insecurity or the inability to afford, prepare or gain access to food. While many communities have programs providing home-delivered meals for older adults, growth in demand for such services is likely to mushroom as the aging of the population continues.

Private-sector companies will be called on to meet that demand, especially as it expands beyond the confines of the financially needy. Demand for nutritional counseling among seniors is also expected to boom, and it is likely that new franchise businesses will emerge to meet that demand.

Another area related to senior health that is promising for the franchise community is exercise. Despite extensive research showing that exercise can greatly increase overall muscle strength, bone density, agility and general function and improve overall quality of life for older adults, too few get enough of it. Specialists on aging recommend that seniors have access to a range of fitness programs to improve their health and well-being.

A number of fitness and exercise franchises targeting older consumers have already hit the market, and their numbers are growing. "Part of the appeal is providing a comfortable atmosphere where older consumers can work out with their peers," explained the owner of one such franchise. "Many older people find the iron-pumping atmosphere in a conventional gym intimidating."

While many elder care services are delivered in the recipient’s home, some cannot be. Getting older patients to care-giving venues is an issue. Reduced mobility is one of the big challenges many people face as they get older. It can put them at higher risk for poor health, isolation and loneliness. Like most adults, older Americans rely primarily on private automobiles to meet their mobility needs, but age-related physical limitations may restrict or eliminate an older adult’s ability to drive.

Many seniors who are unable to drive would still be able to live independently if they had access to available, adequate, affordable and accessible transportation, according to n4a. Currently, however, only about half of U.S. communities provide “dial-a-ride” or other door-to-door transportation services for older adults, leaving a huge hole that private-sector companies, including some franchises, are beginning to step in to fill.

The long-term outlook for elder care services is extremely robust, as illustrated by the Labor Department’s projections on job growth. Even over the short term, however, there is good reason to believe the industry will outperform the economy at large. For example, market researcher Freedonia Group forecasts revenues for elder care services in the U.S. to increase an average of 6.6% per year between now and 2011, reaching more than $26 billion in annual revenues at that point.

"Advances will be driven largely by demographic changes. Medical advances and trends toward healthier lifestyles are increasing the life expectancy of all age groups and contributing to the growing number of individuals in the older population segment," a Freedonia Group spokesman said.

"Such gains are augmented by the large, post-World War II baby-boom generation that will be entering their retirement years. Growth will also stem from the rising cost of providing care on a per capita basis," the spokesman said. "Additionally, advances are spurred by the rising number of older adults who either do not have family members who are able to care for them or simply prefer using professional care."

The numbers back up Freedonia’s conclusions:

The reliable provision of elder care services is also becoming an issue for corporate America, as the skyrocketing population of older adults affects a growing number of businesses large and small. As more employees face challenges caring for elderly parents, workforce productivity and employee retention rates can suffer.

One potential solution is for companies to provide employees with elder care benefits. "Employers who show sensitivity to employees’ elder care issues and provide whatever assistance they can may benefit in terms of increased worker loyalty, employee retention and boosted morale," said Steve Rhatigan, president of Stemark Associates, a Houston-based consulting firm.

Although the number of companies offering their employees elder care benefits is still relatively small, it is a trend that is likely to grow. According to a survey by Johnson & Johnson, 71% of employees using such benefits and 58% of employees not currently using them but entitled to them rated the benefits as very important in their decision to stay in their current jobs.

As more companies start to see the value of offering elder care benefits as a competitive tool to attract and retain employees, established franchise companies providing senior care and services will have a leg up on the competition. And while the opportunities in this segment of franchising are immense, they come with some noteworthy challenges. A big one is the unique nature of the population segment that is evolving into the industry’s largest target market: the baby boomers.

The baby boom generation represents a massive wave of some 80 million men and women who are fast approaching age 65. Historically, people of that age could accurately be described as "old," but marketers who try to stick that label on graying baby boomers risk incurring their wrath rather than their patronage.

Even those aging baby boomers requiring some level of assistance in their daily lives generally don’t consider themselves “old” in the traditional sense of the word, and franchises targeting this market segment must take that into consideration, experts say. In fact, marketers should even be careful about using accepted euphemisms such as "senior" and "silver" in crafting their pitches, says consultant Charles Stevens.

Boomers are different in a number of ways. For example, a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for a major bank found that boomers fear illness and the prospect of winding up in a nursing home three times more than they fear dying. Other findings from the same survey include:

"We asked boomers for their hopes, fears and thoughts about retirement, and what we got was the systematic dismantling of our preconceptions about the future, for not only this generation, but for nearly all of society’s institutions," said Dychtwald, who co-authored the survey.

As William Novelli, chief executive officer of AARP and author of 50+: Give Meaning and Purpose to the Best Time of Your Life, put it, "Boomers want to live well, and they want to live comfortably, and they want to live in familiar surroundings." That means that millions of them are likely to choose to "age in place," and that they will be avid consumers of the products and services provided by thousands of franchisees in the elder care industry.