WASHINGTON, DC, Apr 2 — Today’s seniors are stronger than ever. That’s not wishful thinking, it’s a fact with substantial proof. For one thing, the senior citizen segment of the U.S. work force has been expanding rapidly for some time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To be more specific, BLS data shows that the 55-plus segment of the U.S. labor force stood at 11.6% in 1993 and by 2024 that number will grow to nearly 25%.
“What’s more striking is that the Bureau expects that men and women 65 to 75 years of age and older are leading the pack of seniors who want to keep working. In fact, the Census Bureau reported not long ago that as many as five percent of Americans in the 85 and up age range have jobs,” says Rebecca Weber, CEO of the senior advocacy organization, the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC].
Not so surprising, she adds, considering that the country’s 90-plus population has tripled over the past 30 years and will grow to more than 7.6 million nonagenarians by the year 2050.
One such member of the U.S. work force is actor William Shatner who turned 90 just last week. He’s still working and doesn’t seem likely to retire anytime soon. Shatner has a new movie coming out soon. It’s called Senior Moment
and features a retired NASA test pilot. The Chicago Sun Times called it “geriatric rom-com.”
Shatner is not ready to go gently into the night, as he told Entertainment Tonight in a recent interview, “I’d like to be around when the science fiction of today becomes science fact.”
AMAC CEO Weber explains that Shatner is not very different from any of the new breed of busy old timers. “Consider his schedule. He recently cut two albums, he launched a new podcast, shot a new show, The Unexplained, for the History Channel and is out there plugging his new movie, despite the limitations imposed during the pandemic.”
But Weber notes that the Star Trek hero, James Tiberius Kirk, is not the only old timer who is keeping his “chin up” while riding out the COVID pandemic; senior citizens in general are showing the world what resilience is all about.
She cites two studies that both came to the same conclusion: the elderly participants were able to remain in a good mood despite the threat of the pandemic, according to the findings of one of the studies. The other proved that older age was associated with less concern about the threat of COVID and better emotional well-being.
If you’re good at your job and enjoy what you’re doing, keep doing it. I worked pass 71 and enjoyed it. Then the virus hit along with ratios, gender and race that radically changed the work place. Ability and performance were considered only after all the other sensitive issues were addressed. The product suffered, the customer suffered but we were a balanced politically correct work place. I really never saw age as a factor. You either had the skills and knowledge or you didn’t. What made me quit was a profound hearing loss. I got top-of-line hearing aids and a roger from the VA but my hearing loss and slower processing speed made my job a challenge. Not undoable but a challenge. I was excluded from meetings, left out of consultations, co-workers stopped interacting with me. I was passed over on assignments and isolated. My supervisors tolerated me, gave me high appraisal reports but work wasn’t fun anymore. I wasn’t part of the team. So I retired. I retired from my first job after 28 years and this one after 20 years so maybe it was time. But it was hearing loss, not age that forced me out of the work place.
I am blessed! … For without discovering PEMF Therapy Treatments I very much doubt that I would be anywhere as near as healthy at 73 as I am today. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I have NO clogged arteries, NO high blood pressure or sugar, NO high cholesterol! I STILL work, even more now than I ever did before. My immune system is very strong and I don’t worry about catching the Covid virus! I do petitioning, which when I do work is a 7 days a week/ 8-9 hours a day job and I love it! I might work 7-8 months a year and am always off November thru mid-February. I live in Orange County, California where today the only real benefit is the weather! Other than New York, California is extremely over priced on everything! Housing, food, gasoline, utilities and over populated especially with illegal immigrants who now make up 1/3 of the 30 million population. And our Jackass Governor caters to them. I hear as much Spanish being spoken as English and I’ve been here for 30 years and it wasn’t always so! Of course, if the state wasn’t run so Progressively Communist, I probably wouldn’t have half the petitions I get to work on. Being single, I would rather work than be so bored. I thank God for ALL my blessings everyday!!!