More people past age 70 are still working today than a decade ago. And they bring 3 benefits of value to your workforce.
The oldest cohort of workers today are the Baby Boomers. The youngest are 56—still ten years away from retirement age, and the oldest are 74, about 15 percent of whom are still in the workforce and by traditional measures almost ten years PAST retirement age.
Many highly educated people continue to work because the want to. They like what they do, and for Boomers, especially the leading edge Boomers who are now aged 70-74, work has been such a central part of their identity that retirement just does not hold the appeal it does for members of other generations or for people who have worked in more physically demanding jobs.
More Working Later
The share of workers over 70 with a bachelor’s degree or higher who are still working was 20%, in 2018, but even among those with less education, the numbers have increased, says Katharine Abraham, an economics professor at the University of Maryland who is quoted in an article in Quartz at Work, published online in June, 2019. Among those with high school education the number was about 10% and for those with some college, it was around 15% in 2018.
According to The Guardian, more than three times as many men aged 70 and older are still in the workforce, compared with a decade ago, and the number of women over 70 has more than doubled—up by 131%.
The 3 Benefits
While some younger workers are eager to see Boomers move on, older workers are actually good news for employers. Research from the Milliken Institute’s Center on the Future of Aging at Stanford’s Center on Longevity finds that older workers:
- Take fewer sick days
- Have stronger problem-solving skills
- Are more likely to show high levels of satisfaction with their work
Why They Work
Researchers at the Brookings Institution report that leaving a satisfying career can cause significant mental health challenges, feelings of isolation and emptiness, especially for men.
“Perennials, not millennials may form the next wave of talent,” says Corinne Purtill in Quartz at Work. With research that shows higher productivity in age diverse work settings, many employers are creating strategies for retaining older workers.
Older workers are now the fastest-growing population of workers. Indeed, between 1994 and 2024, workers aged 55 and up will go from the smallest to the largest segment of the US workforce according the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Changes in life expectancy, health, stagnation of real wages during peak earning years for Boomers, a solid work ethic, and a financial need resulting from changes in retirement plans and pensions means that many older workers will need to remain in the workforce past the traditional retirement age. It is time to re-think how we view older workers and recognize their contributions both to the economy and to their employers.
