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October 14, 2013 at 10:31 AM
EDITOR’S NOTE Aging America is a joint AP-APME examining the aging of the baby boomers and the impact this so-called silver tsunami is having on society.
CHICAGO (AP) — Stung by a recession that sapped investments and home values, but expressing widespread job satisfaction, older Americans appear to have accepted the reality of a retirement that comes later in life and no longer represents a complete exit from the workforce. Some 82 percent of working Americans over 50 say it is at least somewhat likely they will work for pay in retirement, according to a poll released Monday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The survey found 47 percent of working survey respondents now expect to retire later than they previously thought and, on average, plan to call it quits at about 66, or nearly three years later than their estimate when they were 40. Men, racial minorities, parents of minor children, those earning less than $50,000 a year and those without health insurance were more likely to put off their plans.
“Many people had experienced a big downward movement in their 401(k) plans, so they’re trying to make up for that period of time when they lost money,” said Olivia Mitchell, a retirement expert who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
About three-quarters of working respondents said they have given their retirement years some or a great deal of thought. When considering factors that are very or extremely important in their retirement decisions, 78 percent cited financial needs, 75 percent said health, 68 percent their ability to do their job and 67 percent said their need for employer benefits such as health insurance.
Graphic designer Tom Sadowski, 65, of Sterling, Va., had expected to retire this year, but the recession caused his business to fail and his savings to take a hit. With four teenage daughters, he knew he had to put retirement off.
“At this age, my dad had already been retired 10 years and moved to Florida,” he said. “Times are different now for most people.”
Sadowski now plans to retire in about five years, but even then, he expects to do some work for pay. He notes that some of his friends without children have begun to retire, but he tries not to dwell on his shifted plans.
“For a moment, maybe, I have a twinge of, ‘I wish that were me,’ ” he said. “But you can’t live that way.”
The shift in retirement expectations coincides with a growing trend of later-life work. Labor force participation of seniors fell for a half-century after the advent of Social Security, but began picking up in the late 1990s. Older adults are now the fastest-growing segment of the American workforce; people 55 and up are forecast to make up one-fourth of the civilian labor force by 2020.
That growth has paralleled a rising interest in retirements that are far more active than the old stereotype of moving to Florida, never to work again. Among those who retired, 4 percent are looking for a job and 11 percent are already working again. Those still on the job showed far greater interest in continuing to work: Some 47 percent of employed survey respondents said they are very or extremely likely to do some work for pay in retirement, and 35 percent said they are somewhat likely.
“The definition of retirement has changed,” said Brad Glickman, a certified financial planner with a large number of baby-boomer clients in Chevy Chase, Md. “Now the question we ask our clients is, ‘What’s your job after retirement?’ ”
One such retiree who returned to the workforce is Clara Marion, 69, of Covington, La., a teacher who retired in 2000 and went back to work a year later. She retired again in 2007 but soon returned to part-time work because she needed the money.
When she first retired, she had about $100,000 in savings, but she has used much of that up. Her pension isn’t enough to pay her bills, and she isn’t eligible for Social Security. So she’s back in a second-grade classroom, four days a week.
“I’d love to be sleeping in,” she said, “but I will probably never retire.”
Though Marion’s finances are primarily what keep her working, she says she enjoys her work, in line with other survey respondents reporting exceptional job satisfaction. Nine out of 10 workers in the study said they are very or somewhat satisfied with their job.
