More older Americans are working, and working more, than they used to

More older Americans – those ages 65 and older – are working than at any time since the turn of the century, and today’s older workers are spending more time on the job than did their peers in previous years, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of employment data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In May, 18.8% of Americans ages 65 and older, or nearly 9 million people, reported being employed full- or part-time, continuing a steady increase that dates to at least 2000 (which is as far back as we took our analysis). In May of that year, just 12.8% of 65-and-older Americans, or about 4 million people, said they were working.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...e-working-and-working-more-than-they-used-to/

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Time scale is all wrong for any concept of reality.
Seriously, why waste time and print on an analysis that only covers 16 years, then claim a headline which is grossly misleading?

The first country to initiate a retirement plan was Otto von Bismarck's Germany in the 1880's, and the retirement age by that plan was 70.
40 years ago, I worked for a 74 year old well driller. Tales from my family are rife with farmers working till death(usually in their 70s or 80s)

Younger(age 65) retirement is a creation of the industrial economy of the previous century.
Add in that the pewresearchers chose a time during which we had a minor and major recession during which many pension plans that hadn't been gutted during the 1990s were wiped out.

If you are any good at what you are doing, why quit? why retire?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Given the changing demographics in Europe and Japan particularly, where the percentage of older people is growing relative to younger workers, keeping older people productive and engaged will become more and more important. It's going to be a major growing trend into the future.

Older workers are uniquely positioned to fit into an economy that features more and more part-time work, more flexible on-call scheduling (work when we need you, vacation when we don't), and more demand for skilled workers. (Who has more actual job experience than the older workers?) What's more, fewer and fewer jobs are heavy physical labor in today's economy, making older workers more suitable.

I wouldn't like to see younger workers displaced by the older ones, but older workers are a golden resource that will inevitably be tapped, if only to reduce the burdens of a growing dependent class.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I think that was probably the point.