But aging's consequences are more than skin-deep. Reports suggest that the mere act of maturing increases one's chances of losing a job or facing discrimination by an employer, especially in technology fields.

In 2000, an economist from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and a professor from the Emory University's Goizueta Business School published a study-"Are Displaced Workers Now Finished at Forty?"-that looked at the trend of job displacement among middle-aged and older workers during the 1990s recession. The study concluded that middle-aged workers do face increased risk of being displaced. They also have more difficulty finding work once displaced, and when they do find new employment, their incomes often take a hit.

Older workers also tend to report more workplace discrimination. Indeed, age discrimination complaints now constitute the fastest-growing category of complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Washington). EEOC reports that the incidence of such complaints has risen 23 percent in each of the years since 1999. The agency's preliminary numbers for fiscal year 2002 show the trend continuing.

Sources blame the rise on the increased population of older workers as well as the economic downturn and its attendant layoffs. But others say high-tech professions such as engineering breed a "washed up at 40" mindset that puts many professionals out of work in their prime earning years.

Sheldon Steinhauser, associate professor of sociology at Metropolitan State College in Denver, said "hot shot" industries like technology are known for a "pervasive age bias." He said the feeling is that workers aged 45 years and above are both "more expensive and not current in their skills" and that they can't handle the requisite 60-hour workweeks the way 20-somethings can. Such perceptions can shape management decisions.

One source at IEEE-USA contends the engineering profession has become the domain of the young and thus affords its practitioners only "half a career."

But Steinhauser said he believes age bias must be defeated if employers hope to have a deep enough labor pool to meet their needs in 2015, because by then workers 55 years and older will constitute nearly 20 percent of the work force.

"Employers won't be able to do without older workers and will have to leap over the age bias because they'll need [those older staffers]," Steinhauser said.

But the shift won't happen overnight, he assured me, and employers won't do it to be nice. Rather, the ageism trend will be reversed out of sheer economic necessity.

In the meantime, break out that wrinkle cream.