|
|
The number of Americans aged 55 or older who are working or actively looking for a job edged up from 38.4 percent last October to 38.9 percent in March, the U.S. labor department reported.
About 500,000 people in that age group “unretired” into the labor force in the last six months, the department said.
The trend reverses the wave of early retirements that defined the first year of the COVID War, when older Americans cashed out of their homes, pocketed their government stimulus checks, and ended their careers.
The growing number of olders on the job coincides with galloping inflation that has raised prices for everything from tires to dog food an average of 8.5 percent over the past 12 months.
TREND FORECAST: Inflation is a particular threat to retired people, who usually live on a fixed income while the cost of living rises all around them.
Also, employers desperate for workers began offering higher wages, flexible schedules, and other perks.
About 2.8 percent of workers who considered themselves retired in January 2021 were back at work, or looking to be, a year later, a survey by job search website Indeed found.
Pre-COVID, older adults lingering in the workforce were seen as obstacles to younger workers advancing in their careers. Now, with more open jobs than willing workers, that is less likely to be a problem in the short term. Also, the elderly are going back into the workforce.
TREND FORECAST: However, when our Top 2022 Trend of Dragflation sets in—with prices rising and the economy shrinking—competition for jobs among generations will sharpen, reopening resentments that younger workers looking for a foothold in the job market have felt toward elders who cling to the higher rungs of the employment ladder.