It may pay dividends to keep your resume up to date into your older years, as a new survey has found that 1 in 8 retirees are swapping the couch for work once again.
The new survey from Resume Builder found that this year, 12% of retired workers will find another job, with the top reasons being higher cost of living and inflation.
The survey also examined the number of older Americans still clocking in for shifts, finding that 25% of Americans ages 62 to 85 are still working.
The findings from the new report help show a trend being discovered by others like it. In an AARP study, researchers found that nearly 25% of Americans above the age of 50 say they expect to never retire.
Additionally, 41% of adults shared in a Bankrate survey that they don’t have enough money to fully retire. It also found that 55% of those who returned to work did so because they needed the income, while 47% said they were bored.
AARP vice president Carly Roszkowski shared in her company’s study that older workers are also struggling to find jobs, leaving them with few choices.
“Older workers [are] starting their own business. Driving for Uber or DoorDash – jobs that didn’t exist 15-20 years ago,” Roszkowski said.
Indiana Senator Mike Braun, the ranking Republican on the Senate Special Committee on Aging, recently touched on this issue, echoing the point that the jobs they once had are no longer available to those returning to work.
“A lot of them … don’t have the job they had before,” Braun said. “Somebody else is either filling that or maybe one there as it was. So they’re coming back to survival-type wages.”
Still, ResumeBuilder’s Chief Career Advisor Stacie Haller shares that not every retiree returning to work is doing so for financial reasons.
“Clearly, the driving factor for a majority of seniors returning to work is financial, but this is not the only reason for many. In my own practice, I often meet with retirees who find that they miss the camaraderie of working with others. Many still want to be in the game and are not ready to just ‘play golf.’ Many are excited about trying something new or something they always wanted to explore,” Haller said.