Necessity is an important driver for many to stay on the job; but workplace satisfaction is also a key motivator
WASHINGTON, DC, Nov 6 – Webster’s defines retirement as the “withdrawal from one’s occupation.” But research over the past several years shows that American workers are “withdrawing” from their jobs in fewer numbers than ever before.
The newest study by Fidelity Investments and the Stanford Center on Longevity found that necessity is the biggest motivator for people to stay on the job longer than they had planned. But, a majority of them who work past their so-called retirement age do so because they like it.
“When asked why they are working in retirement, 61 percent of respondents indicated that ‘they like what they do,’ and nearly half (48 percent) added that ‘feeling valued’ was an important reason to continue working in retirement,” according to the research report.
Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens, points out that older Americans are active these days and don’t like the idea of giving up their careers. “Seventy is the new 50, but some seniors feel like they are 40 years old again. For one thing, people are not only living longer, they’re living healthier, more active lives and so the concept of retirement has undergone a remarkable change.”
There’s no dispute that many older Americans need to continue working past the traditional retirement age of 65 to make ends meet. But more and more of them want to stay on the job because it provides them with a sense of contentment; working makes them feel that they have purpose, Weber said.
The U.S. Census Bureau appears to back up Weber’s assessment. The Bureau reports that the labor participation rate for men between the ages of 65 and 69 grew from 27.9% in 1990 to 35.8% in 2010. Remarkably, the rate for men 70 to 74 years old increased from 16.6% to 20.9%
The participation rate for 65 to 69 year old women in the last decade of the last century through the first decade of the 21st Century rose from 16.9% to 26.4% And, for 70 to 74 year old women the rate grew from 8.4% to 13.5% in the same 20 year period.
Weber said that the trend among older workers will continue for decades to come, considering the fact that each and every day some 10,000 Americans celebrate their 65th birthdays. And, they will be doing so for years to come.
ABOUT AMAC
The Association of Mature American Citizens [http://www.amac.us] is a vibrant, vital senior advocacy organization that takes its marching orders from its members. We act and speak on their behalf, protecting their interests and offering a practical insight on how to best solve the problems they face today. Live long and make a difference by joining us today at http://amac.us/join-amac.
Please read an interesting and depressing article republished in the Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, WA by Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post this morning. The headline in the Herald was “Boomers pillaged America’s economy”. The gist of the article is how the “benefits” of those now receiving Social Security and Medicare need to be taxed and how the boomers “soaked up a lot of economic opportunity without bothering to preserve much fro generations to come….”. This showed a real lack of journalistic research which is so common nowadays. Two points: Those receiving Social Security and who have had their retirement savings not “pillaged” by governmental policies, continue to pay taxes on social security “benefits” which continue to support all the others in programs like SNAP cards, Medicaid benefits, housing benefits, etc. and premiums with deductibles for insurance that does not include dental or usual eye care. We labeled pillagers also paid our parents’ way from the time was held a first job as teenagers. We baby boomers had the benefit of our parents great depression example as the true recyclers and conservationists as well as being on the leading edge of environmentalism. Example: Expo 74 in Spokane, WA. We have followed in those footsteps. I know of many boomers who continue to serve their communities in hospitals, community outreach to youth, etc. I know of many boomers who educated their own children saving the government upwards of $500,000+ in public spending on their children’s education while continuing to pay tax for the benefit of other children. Not to go on and on, to be trashed in this despicable untruthful way by the “hometown” paper has been truly disheartening.
Excellent comment!
Excellent article. I’m transitioning out of recruiting, but when I was recruiting, I was taught the value of seasoned workers past 65 by a general manager at a fortune 500 company, I never forgot that lesson. The incredible experience and value that the seasoned workers add to high performing teams is remarkable.
I find a lot of agreement with most of the comments here and based on the last few by Paul E.. Ivan and Ken I have noticed a sad lack of something I struggle to put any one single label on: Very few people even though they may recognize what is happening and what people like Obama, Clinton, Holder, Kerry and this whole Treasonous administration are up to, they lack the what? Courage, Moxie, Cajones, Spine to call it what is; “TREASON” and what needs to be done about it! Since we are in fact engaged in a war on many fronts “We The People” need to identify men and women in key positions of power who understand the precepts in the United States Uniform Code Of Military Justice (UCMJ ) and bring enough pressure on them to arrest and prosecute these traitors under the US-UCMJ!! Anyone out there know what the penalties for Deserting Your Post and For Aiding And Abetting The Enemy are???
The only places I have ever seen or heard the words Treason and Traitor are on Social media!!! How about it AMAC! ? How about some surveys about the most pressings and critical issues facing America!
GO DAVID!!
I lost my high paid management job on August 1, 2006. I was just about to turn 65. I was very well provided for by my non-profit employer even to the tune of giving me my company executive vehicle, an absolutely beautiful Lincoln Town Car Cartier( which I still drive today) a full years salary continuation, full medical coverage, bonuses, overrides and profit sharing through the end of 2006. At this time I had a fair size investment program and the highest unemployment amount your could receive in California. Life was good! I took a few trips, did some fishing , played golf and tennis regularly. BUT! It wasn’t long before I began to miss the challenges of the sales and marketing management field so I begin to put our a few feelers for new employment opportunities. I had several 2nd and 3rd interviews with several startups and early growth phase young companies. While my credentials and track record of building business and prophets was the best of any of the others who had made it to the final phase of the hiring processes those I was competing against were i5 to 20years my junior. I hasten to ad that them board of directors in each of the companies where all under 45. the oldest of the other candidates I had to compete with was 45. You can guess the rest! Even though I was the most highly qualified to accomplish what each of these young businesses needed, in each case younger candidates were awarded the positions. Since then due to numerous factors I am still unemployed, Have developed several health issues and been forced to file chapter 7 bankruptcy 3 years ago. I now live in a low to moderate income level senior apartment complex in Santa Rosa, California. While Santa Rosa is not as expensive as San Francisco is isn’t cheap either! I am able to pay most of my bills on time, eat well and as a veteran most of my medical health care expenses are covered. For this I thank our wonderful loving God continually. I am still looking to go back to work at a challenging and rewarding job and am blessed to have been able to begin studying for my California Property and Casualty Insurance License sponsored by the nice folks at Allstate Insurance Veterans programs. To all seniors who are Veterans who desire or need to go back to work I suggest you look up online and begin contacting the many Veterans Associations, state and federally sponsored Veterans help groups. You will find many of them on the internet! And! Always take everything to God in prayer! God bless each of you and your families.
There are always two sides to the issue. I, for one, am on the other side. I’ll be turning 69 in another month and I’m still working. I can get by without work as I have savings. But 1. I really enjoy what I do and I think I am making a contribution. 2. They don’t want me to leave. This year end will be the third time I told them I was retiring and they are still trying to convince me to stay. Yes, I have invaluable experience and knowledge so it is in their interest to keep me around. I know I will miss the people I work with even though I have a lot I’d like to do in retirement. So I am torn. Keep working with great people who want me around or go off and do my own thing.
I wished I could find a job as I was laid off or terminated from Schlumberger, they acquired Smith Services 4 years ago and that’s when the oilfield was Booming. it started slowing down the end of last year. They closed the shop we was in that’s has been opened for 50 years. Told us it was over. Now I’ve been looking for a job since June and still have have not found anything. Most of the guy’s that worked there had over 40-45 years with the company and they got their 401K but did not get a retirement package just the old boot. We all got some severance was it but we all signed a 10 page release before we could it, Schlumberger sure covered their bases for stuff happening down road for us like if we come up with health issues we all can not sue them. Now a lot of jobs I’ve been putting in for has told me I don’t have enough experience for several of these jobs I’ve put in for. What I think is going on or is it now that so many College Grads are getting these big management jobs with nothing but book learning and no hands on experience are discriminating against us older folks that’s above 50 with hands experience. What has happened at starting at the bottom and working your way up as it used to be. All these big companies are real worried about is the BIG PROFIT MARGIN is it! May they all eat those Big Profits after they have run all their experienced hand off. This is just my 2 on this day and age we live in.
I think Ken and Ivan Berry summed it up very well – “Nice fantasy article John.”, “Bet they didn’t get questioned by the pollsters.”
Nice fantasy article John. The facts are that companies have a human resource department because that is all we are to them. I withdrew after 33 yrs from a fortune 500 telecom company that made it very clear every day that they wanted younger cheaper employees and did not value my expertise. I left to pursue my classic car passions and hope to forge a new carreer out of my hobby. Big businesses in America are GREEDY and do not care one little bit about their employees. So mote it be!
Ken, I had scanned all the articles for this week and found the interest they generated to be weak. AMAC may believe in polls such as this, but what is the cohort they poll and what is the content of the questions posed seems never to enter into the discussion. For those whose identity is wrapped up in what they do as who they are limits retirement adjustment. Centainly to those, job satisfaction may in fact exist–it’s who they are.
For those whose self is theirs alone, jobs are a means to an end to provide the neccessities and comforts that would otherwise need be supplied by Nanny.
We are living longer and are healthier? So, dementia, diabetes, heart, lung, autoimmune diseases being on the rise, and people kept alive with severe conditions by the advent of modern medicine would indicate that by percentage, we were not particularily more healthy. Instead, people less healthy than those who would have already died in the past, now are able to survive.
And let us face it, the great majority seniors have not, or not been able to adaquately prepare for the future needs.
So, if we are healthier than in the past, try walking through WalMart and check on the shape of customers. Better yet, visit hospital waiting rooms or the local cancer center and check the condition of the patients. Bet the poll didn’t include them in the cohort. Bet they didn’t get questioned by the pollsters.
This article has all the earmarks of your typical survey designed to show a desired outcome. In this case, that seniors are or should be happy about having to work past what they thought was going to be their retirement age. Part of the growing narrative circulating in the mainstream media that “retirement is just a state of mind” and one shouldn’t expect to ever actually stop working. The federal government has to find ways to get seniors to differ the start of collecting SS to make what’s left in the program last longer. This is just one of many efforts I see underway to push that message out.
I would love to see the metrics used to compile this survey, as well as who they targeted for participation to arrive at these results. However, I won’t hold my breath on that one. Surveys, for the most part, have become so intentionally slanted in their questions and targeted participants as to render their outcomes completely meaningless for anything other than transitory political gain.
PAULE, disinterested groups do not conduct surveys. All surveys have an agenda. Questions are slanted toward the desired outcome and do not leave room for nuance or varying opinions outside directed questions. Therefore, to depend upon polls for answers becomes nothing but artificial “proof,” and signifies nothing whatsoever rather than a sales pitch.
Thanks for your additional insights.
By the way Ivan, I have to agree with you regarding article selection. This week we had the EPA win on getting every little ditch, puddle and creek deemed under their control in this country. The EPA also won on getting their power plan through, which will drive up all energy cost in this nation. We also had a Islamic knife attack in this country with five dead. Congress caved on reauthorizing the EX-IM Bank. Obama shutdown Keystone pipeline for the remainder of his presidency. The WH is now talking about using executive action to shutdown Guantanamo and transfer the terrorists held there to prisons here. There were many other items as well. All of which should be of interest to seniors, as they affect their quality of life going forward. However, you’ll notice there are no articles here on any of those topics. Instead what we get is this series of articles. Can you really blame what few members still actually post here for not being terribly interested in what is being delivered week after week?
I have to pretty much agree with you Ken. Another superficial article. Hey but at least it’s not another repetitive Obamacare or Social Security article of the week, which is a positive.
No where in this article does it differentiate between people who own or are partners in a business, thus having a much greater say and control over how both the business is run, so it is more personally fulfilling versus just someone being an average employee in your typical major corporate infrastructure. I know many people who retired from the corporate world or were downsized out the door (they’re called layoffs), who went on to start their own small businesses and are much happier in their senior years than they were through much of their careers working for someone else. So omitting this kind of information in any survey done kind of renders the results highly questionable.
Also there is no correlation made between where in a corporation someone works versus job satisfaction. Obviously someone in the mid to upper levels of management in most corporations has a much more positive view of working past the so-called retirement age than the typical grunt in a cube. That’s simply because they are , once again, able to exert some level of control and predictability over how they work. Also the type of work done at those levels lends itself to being able to stay on the job longer than someone whose job is more physically demanding.