You Say Retirement...I Say, "No Way!"
Retirement is fast becoming an archaic term. One day we may reminisce and think, "Remember when we looked forward to kicking back at 65..."
In a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and LifeGoesStrong.com, almost two-thirds of Baby Boomer respondents in the U.S. are currently working; the same percentage say they will work in some capacity once they have officially retired from their current careers. The South Carolina workforce mirrors the national polling results. "Older workers definitely are working longer past the traditional retirement age," says Pamela Grant, program manager at the SC Lieutenant Governor's Office on Aging.
Why is it more appealing to continue to work and ignore the call of the golf course and lunching with friends? "There are several reasons employees are not retiring at all or waiting until much later in life," Grant says. The main drivers, she says, are:
• Our life spans are longer than ever before;
• We are healthier in our advancing age; and
• The most recent economic downturn has dampened retirement eligibility.
"Many of today's employees know they are not financially or emotionally equipped for retirement. Sometimes they feel it signifies the beginning of the end, so even if they have planned well they stick where they are," Grant continues. "Common sense kicks in. If theyve been in a job for 20 years and enjoy what they do and their job is part of who they are, the economic instability makes them stay. They don't need to expend any extra energy to execute their job functions, and they probably have an affordable health plan, so why stop working?"
Reading from a 2010 Careerbuilder survey conducted by the Sloan Center on Aging & Work, Grant says the number one reason people keep working is to maintain their comfortable lifestyles (53 percent), followed by not wanting to become bored in retirement (31 percent). Other top reasons include: not enough income from other sources, the need to feel productive, a fun and enjoyable job, and interaction with others.
Preston Thackston spent many of his prime working years in manufacturing, retiring first from Bodette after 20 years of service, and then working and retiring from Cryovac after 33 additional years in the workplace. Soon after his second retirement, he ventured into entrepreneurialism, opening PT Spirits in Fountain Inn in 2005. "I can't sit still; I have to move," Thackston says. He job shares with two part-time employees who are both in their mid-60s and work to supplement real estate careers. He fills his spare time with hunting, fishing, gardening and restoring classic cars.
Lee Turza of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System says 10.5 percent of her organization's work force of almost 3,500 employees is more than 60 years old. "We hire based on an applicant's qualifications for the position. If an applicant is a good match with the job and a good match with our Catholic, faith-based culture focused on serving others, then we hire," Turza says. "Employees over 50 have a different mindset and learn differently than employees in their 20s," she continues. "We encourage department directors to discover the valuable differences in each age group and determine how they complement each other."
The aging population will increase dramatically over the next 25 years in South Carolina. There were more than 650,000 people age 65 and over living in the state in 2000; that number will spike to 1.45 million by 2030, according to the Office on Aging. That places South Carolina 14th in the nation in the increasing population of seniors. Seniors who are living and moving to the state offer a wealth of knowledge and skills. They can positively impact quality of life through continued post-retirement employment and even volunteerism.
The aging workforce is positive or negative for the state's employers, depending on whom you ask. Older employees' higher salaries are stressful for company owners struggling to balance the budget, yet the seniors' specialized skills are invaluable for knowledge transfer to a younger workforce. Then again, some employers say skill sets are changing constantly due to technological advancements, and younger workers may be more adaptive to these changes. Younger employees learn computer literacy at a much younger age, but the AP poll showed 75 percent of Baby Boomer respondents say they have been able to keep up with technology advancements in their industries.
Regardless of how the workforce views mature employees, employment continues to be an important source of income for older adults.