Older Americans get physical in workforce
Maybe the lack of a pension or insufficient retirement savings is keeping you a part of the daily grind longer than you wanted to work. Or perhaps you’re healthy and financially secure but don’t want to charge into the Golden Years just yet.
Whatever the case, if you’re among the growing number of Americans working beyond what used to be considered the normal retirement age, a new report from the Urban Institute might shed some light on what kind of job you might land as a late-life career.
The Washington, D.C., think tank says driving trucks, cleaning buildings, and farming and ranching are among the most common jobs for men over 62 while women of the same age are getting jobs teaching elementary or secondary school or as secretaries, administrative assistants and personal care aides.
“The one thing that surprises me is how physical some of these jobs are,” said Richard Johnson, director of the Institute’s retirement policy program.
Mr. Johnson and colleague Claire Xiaozhi Wang analyzed data from a health and retirement survey compiled by the University of Michigan to determine what kinds of jobs people in their 60s hold and how much they enjoy them. Their earlier work revealed that the percentage of men age 65 to 69 in the workforce had increased from 28 percent in 1995 to 38 percent in 2016. Over the same period, the percentage of women of a similar age in the workforce jumped from 18 percent to 30 percent.
“Sometimes, people are working because they want to work. Other times, people are working because they have to work,” Mr. Johnson said.
In addition to longer life expectancies, there are more incentives for people to work longer than there used to be, according to Mr. Johnson.
He said workers with no or little pension work in their 60s so they can bolster their retirement savings by contributing to an IRA or 401(k) plan. Others want to delay claiming Social Security, knowing they will get about an 8 percent bump for each year they delay enrolling in the program, he said.
The researchers also looked at the top jobs for those older than 62 who never went to college (delivery worker or truck driver for men; secretary or administrative assistant for women) and those who did (postsecondary teacher for men; elementary and secondary teacher for women).
They also looked at jobs aging workers took after losing their previous position. For newly hired men 62 or older, the top job is being a delivery worker or truck driver. For women, it is being a personal care aide.
“If you do lose your job at an older age, it’s a lot harder to find