Retirement is taking on a whole new meaning for many midlifers: Some 57 percent of workers over 60 would seek a new job after retirement, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive© for CareerBuilder and PrimeCB.com.
While 71 percent of respondents said they could retire within six years, 11 percent of respondents didn't think they would ever be able to retire, according to Career Builder, which surveyed more than 800 workers aged 60 and older, and more than 3,000 hiring professionals.
"Whether mature workers are motivated by financial concerns or simply enjoy going to work every day, we're seeing more people move away from the traditional definition of retirement and seek 'rehirement,'" Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, said in a statement.
"At the same time, employers are seeing the value these mature workers can bring to an organization, from their intellectual capital to their mentoring and training capabilities," Haefner stated. In fact, some 41 percent of employers told Career Builder they had hired post 50 workers in 2011, and 43 percent expect to hire them in 2012.
Separately, a recent survey of British workers found that 68 percent say they can't afford to retire when they had planned because of dismal returns on investments and a higher-than-expected cost of living. "People are living longer, and for many, the very real prospect of a thirty year retirement is either unpalatable or unaffordable, hence the decision by many to continue to work," Vince Smith-Hughes, the Prudential's retirement income expert, told AOL.
But to many, delaying retirement doesn't merely mean slowing down in their 70s. A 2011 Wells Fargo survey found a quarter of respondents believed they would have to work until they are at least 80 to save enough money for retirement.
Similarly, a recent report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found the percentage of workers over 55 has increased in recent years. EBRI analyzed recent U.S. Census Bureau data, which revealed that the percentage of workers 55 and older increased from 29.4 percent in 1993 to 40.2 percent in 2010 and 2011, the highest level in 35 years. According to EBRI's report:
This upward trend is not surprising and is likely to continue because of workers’ need for continued access to employment-based health insurance and for more earning years to accumulate savings in defined contribution (401(k)-type) plans. Older Americans, particularly those in the private sector, increasingly have less access to guaranteed levels of income (such as pensions) or health insurance benefits when they retire.... However, financial concerns are not the only incentives involved here—there also there also is an increased desire among many Americans to work longer, particularly among those with more education, for whom more meaningful jobs are often available that can be done well into older ages.
We asked Huff/Post50 readers what careers they dreamed of pursuing after retirement; check out the slideshow below for their responses.
