Retirees returning to U.S. labor force

Millions of older Americans stopped working during the pandemic, far more than usual, stoking fears that the workforce had been permanently altered. But the country is close to closing the gap in early retirements, according to new data.

An estimated 1.5 million retirees have reentered the U.S. labor market over the past year, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed. That means the economy has made up most of the extra losses of retirees since February 2020, a Washington Post analysis shows.

Many retirees are being pulled back to jobs by a combination of diminishing covid concerns and more flexible arrangements at a time when employers are desperate for workers. In some cases, workers say rising costs -- and the inability to keep up while on a fixed income -- are factoring heavily into their decisions as well.

The April jobs report to be released today is expected to show more workers rejoining the labor market, but the strong return of retirees is considered somewhat unexpected and even fortunate considering the record 11.5 million job openings in March.

Jerry Munoz recently returned to full-time work at a pharmaceutical company in San Diego after a decade of retirement. He'd gotten antsy staying home during the pandemic and said he felt safe going back into the office after receiving a coronavirus vaccine and booster. The extra pay from his new position as a safety consultant has been helpful, too: He and his wife recently bought an investment home with the money.

"Covid made me think about a lot of things, and I felt like I was wasting my skills and my knowledge," the 64-year-old said. "I told my wife that as long as I'm healthy enough, I'll probably work another two years."

Roughly 2.4 million additional Americans retired in the 18 months of the pandemic than expected, making up the majority of the 4.2 million people who left the labor force between March 2020 and July 2021, according to Miguel Faria-e-Castro, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The percentage of retirees returning to work has picked up momentum in recent months, hitting a pandemic high of 3.2% in March, according to Indeed. In interviews with nearly a dozen workers who recently "un-retired," many said they felt comfortable returning to work now that they've gotten the coronavirus vaccine and booster shots. Almost all said they'd taken on jobs that were more accommodating of their needs, whether that meant being able to work remotely, travel less or set their own hours.

"This is primarily a story of a tight labor market," said Bunker of Indeed, who added that there was a similar rebound in people returning from retirement after the recession. "For so much of last year, the big question in the labor market was: Where are all the workers? This year we're seeing that they're coming back."

The bounceback comes as U.S. employers continue to complain of widespread labor shortages, with twice as many available positions as there are unemployed Americans, according to the Labor Department. As a result, employers are having to go to greater lengths to attract and keep workers of all ages.

More employers are specifically recruiting retirees by posting jobs at senior centers and churches, as well as websites such as Retirementjobs.com and Workforce50.com aimed at older Americans. Many are also more willing to offer accommodations such as part-time or remote work, according to Amanda Cage, president of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

"This is the first time I've seen retirees become a targeted population," she said. "It's very different from what we saw in the last recession, when older workers faced extreme discrimination in the labor market in a way that they never quite recovered from."

Robert Blethen, a retired truck driver in Connecticut, wasn't exactly looking to work again. But the 70-year-old was lured back last fall when he got a call asking if he'd be willing to drive nine horses from Oklahoma to Maine.

That two-day gig turned into part-time work and eventually, full-time employment for a small trucking company. Now he's on the road 72 hours a week shuttling livestock to and from Florida. Blethen, who receives about $2,800 a month in Social Security, says the extra money has helped cover home improvement costs, including a new heating system, garage doors and window installations.

"I was kind of bored, and the company was short of help," said Blethen, who has been working since he was 12. "Plus I'm being compensated very well."

Although it's clear that people are reentering the workforce at higher rates, it's less clear exactly what sorts of jobs they're getting -- or how much of their decisions are voluntary, said Beth Truesdale, an expert in the aging workforce and inequality at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

"The privilege of being able to retire early or to return to work if you want to, is restricted to a tiny, tiny fraction of Americans," Truesdale said. "People are making choices under very constrained circumstances. ... In many cases, it isn't a choice to work longer so much as having to work longer to make ends meet."

Roblyn Melton, 58, a retired educator in Farmington, Mo., recently took a full-time job as a curriculum consultant because of astronomical health insurance premiums, which at $1,200 a month, were double her mortgage. She plans to work for another seven years until she's eligible for Medicare.

"Basically I went back to work because of health insurance," said Melton, who was retired for three years. "But I did pick a job that I enjoyed doing, so it's not like I went back to do something I hate."

Leaving the workforce early can be both a result and driver of inequality, economists say. More vulnerable older workers -- in lower-wage jobs without college degrees -- were most likely to stop working prematurely during the pandemic, while more privileged Americans tended to delay retirement, according to The New School's Retirement Equity Lab. The share of Black workers without a college degree who stopped working before age 65 increased the most.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, an awful lot of older people were pushed out of jobs or left because of high health risks," Truesdale said. "What does it mean to retire under those circumstances? It can be very complicated."

Determining exactly who is "retired" versus simply out of work can also be tricky, she said. Many people who leave the labor force in their 50s and early 60s do so because of health concerns or caregiving responsibilities, both of which were amplified early in the covid crisis. Others may leave early because of employee buyouts or early retirement packages, which tend to target the oldest workers.

Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Van Dam and Alyssa Fowers of The Washington Post.

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