Golden Years… Or Tears: More US Seniors Are Still Working Than At Any Time Since The ’60s
Golden Years… Or Tears: More US Seniors Are Still Working Than At Any Time Since The ’60s
Long walks on the beach, holding hands in a hottub overlooking the ocean, working on your golf game…in Hawaii, treating the kids and grandkids to treats and trips – we have all seen the commercials of how great ‘retirement’ can be (or could have been), if you just put a little more money into the stock market via your friendly local asset gatherer.
Well, sad to say, as Bloomberg reports, more and more Americans are spending their golden years on the job.
Almost 19 percent of people 65 or older were working at least part-time in the second quarter of 2017, according to the U.S. jobs report released on Friday. The age group’s employment/population ratio hasn’t been higher in 55 years, before American retirees won better health care and Social Security benefits starting in the late 1960s.
And the trend looks likely to continue. Millennials, prepare yourselves.
Older Americans are working more even as those under 65 are working less, a trend that the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects to continue. By 2024, 36 percent of 65- to 69-year-olds will be active participants in the labor market, the BLS says. That’s up from just 22 percent in 1994.
A number of factors are keeping older Americans in the workforce. Many are healthier and living longer than previous generations. Some decide not to fully retire because they enjoy their jobs or just want to stay active and alert.
Others need the money. One glance at the chart above may help indicate one big driver of pain – notice that as each major market crash occurs, the prime-working-age cohort and the senior-generation cohort inflects and diverges, as the wealthier, older generation comes face to face with reality as their long-term savings are decimated by reality stepping into stock markets.
The share of older people in the workforce is higher than at any point since before the creation of Medicare. Even more older Americans might be out there working, though, if they were healthier and had better job prospects.
And it’s not just Americans that are ‘not’ living-the-dream they were sold by various asset managers…
Around the globe, workers of all ages are moving their retirement goals later and later in life.
If Yellen will just keep the dream alive for another 30 years then the enitre boomer generation can retire wealthy… right?
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