(FORTUNE Magazine) – Turning 50 this year? So are Bill Clinton, Linda Ronstadt, Connie Chung, Sylvester Stallone ... (and let's not forget Cheech Marin). Never mind all the stuff you may have heard about how unemployable you've suddenly become. Chicago outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas contends you're just improving with age. The company has rounded up a raft of statistics from government agencies and other sources on the 50-and-over set, who will make up fully one-quarter of the work force by the year 2005. Among them:

-- Over-50s are less restless than younger workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that only 3% of employees 50 or over change jobs in any given year, compared with 10% of the entire labor force and 12% of workers ages 25 to 34. Ah, those itchy Generation Xers.

-- They're apparently more careful. Challenger cites private studies showing that, while older workers now make up 14% of the work force, they suffer only 10% of all workplace injuries.

-- They're also healthier. Research by the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California suggests that people over 50 tend to use fewer health care benefits than workers with school-age children, and most companies know it. "If older workers cost more due to health care," the Challenger report notes, "early-retirement programs would not include health care benefits."

Employers like Motorola actively seek the well-seasoned because, says John Challenger, "they add a dimension that younger people can't: They have experience, and they understand business."

A word of caution, though: Don't let the word "retirement" cross your lips in a job interview. Potential bosses, if they're smart, won't hold your age against you, but they do want people who are planning to stick around awhile.