In a prior blog, I discussed the study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research that found that the return on investment in a college education extends long into life – age 65 and beyond.
On a related point, the study includes a statistic that quantifies something I’ve been observing: the trend of over-65 people continuing to work. The percentage of Americans age 65 and over in the workforce has risen 50 percent in just 10 years:
– In 2002, 12.5 percent of age-65+ people were in the workforce.
– By 2012, that percentage had zoomed to 18.5 percent. (The study gleans the statistics from the Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey 2012.)
The reasons are numerous, as this blog has covered:
– Financial necessity.
– Desire to continue contributing to an industry and enjoying a career.
– Greater opportunities with flexible employers.
– Technology tools that allow telecommuting and remote work.
– A slow pipeline of younger workers coming into the insurance workforce.I hope and expect that the percentage of people over 65 who are in the workforce will continue to rise.In your experience, what is the biggest factor in workers’ staying in the workforce after age 65?
– Sharon Emek, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO
Work At Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE)