While everyone knows jobs are hard to get, Americans who want to work during retirement sometimes seem forgotten. This is important not only because many baby boomers need to continue working in retirement if they want to retire comfortably, but also because the longer they delay taking Social Security benefits or defer using Medicare, the less costly those programs will be to the federal government.
A new Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index poll sought to gain some insight into this issue. Among the key findings is that investors, retired or not, feel jobs are not only hard to get for retirees, but also harder for retirees to get than for other Americans.
Only 8% of investors rate jobs as easily available for retired Americans, while another 40% rate them somewhat available.
Nearly two in three investors (63%) say job availability is "getting worse" for retirees.
About half of investors say the job situation facing retirees is worse than that facing other Americans.
Given this investor perception of the job situation facing retirees, it may be surprising that when planning for retirement, 74% of investors think Americans should count on working part time as a major source (14%) or a minor source (60%) of retirement income.
On the other hand, it is not surprising that eight in 10 investors believe retired Americans need to reinvent themselves to get a job. The idea is that retirees must think about the job they can do now, given their age and circumstances, as opposed to what they were able to do before they retired. Of course, this is a long way from the old idea that retirement was a time to sit on the beach and play golf, as well as from the newer mindset that retirement is a time when you can do what you want to do, instead of what you have to do to get by. Maybe, we'll soon have to undertake another look at what retirement means going forward.
Reinvented or not, the magnitude of the job challenge for retired Americans is enormous. Right now, only 10% of retirees say they are working part time to maintain a comfortable living in retirement. In contrast, 58% of nonretirees say they plan to work part time as a way to maintain a comfortable living in retirement.