More American workers are staying on the job past 65, and the trend is expected to increase as birth rates decline, the population ages, and workers contend with stagnant wages, inflation, and insufficient retirement savings.
A Feb. 24 Time article focused on older workers in Vermont noted that while some people opt to work longer to stay connected, about half need to for financial reasons. However, it can be hard for older workers to find jobs, Lisa Berkman, Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in the article.
Berkman studies the aging workforce and has found that that the 50s are an important professional turning point. About half of Americans lack steady employment in their 50s, according to Berkman, and only a third of these people will work in their 60s. By contrast, 80% of those stably employed in their 50s will work in their 60s. Berkman has noted that more flexible workplace policies can help middle-aged workers stay more steadily employed.
Read the Time article: For Many of America’s Aging Workers, ‘Retirement Is a Distant Dream’
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Lisa Berkman
