USA: Older Americans Not Working Late in their Lives as Earlier

NAIROBI, Kenya (Daily Nation - AP), March 12, 2006: Americans are living longer, healthier lives than ever before, but they aren’t working into their old age nearly as much as seniors did 50 years ago, according to a report in the Daily Nation here today. A US government report released on Thursday shows that only 19 per cent of men aged 65 and older were part of the labour force in 2003, down from 46 per cent in 1950. Women are working in much larger numbers earlier in life, but among those 65 and older, their participation in the labour force has remained steady at around 10 per cent since 1950. "Not too long ago, people, particularly men, worked until they were physically unable to work," said Robert Friedland, director of the Centre on an Aging Society at Georgetown University. "Now, people have a period of time to which they are looking forward." But they can only look forward to retirement if they are financially prepared, said Friedland, who noted that $1 million ($840,000) in a retirement account isn’t that much to live on if you expect be around another 20 or 30 years. "If you leave the labour force thinking you have plenty, and then realise that you don’t, then you are stuck," Friedland said. The findings are part of a report thick with statistics on America’s senior citizens, called "65+ in the United States: 2005". It was commissioned by the National Institute on Aging and compiled by the Census Bureau. The findings have added importance as the first baby boomers near retirement age. The oldest baby boomers turn 60 this year, and the new report suggests that many of them already have left the labour force. "The social and economic implications of an aging population – and of the baby boom in particular – are likely to be profound for both individuals and society," Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon said in a statement. There are about 35 million Americans aged 65 and over, a number that is projected to more than double by 2030, according to the report. About 59 per cent of seniors are women. The report attributes the declining work rate among older Americans to the growth in private pensions, Social Security and Medicare benefits. As benefits for older Americans grew in the last half of the 20th Century, fewer saw the need to work beyond age 65, said Mitra Toossi, an economist at the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Improved benefits played a bigger role in retirement plans than the fact that workers were living longer, Toossi said. But the biggest benefit programmes face problems. Private pension systems have been defaulting at an alarming rate. Many companies are abandoning pension plans that guarantee benefits based on years of service and age at retirement. Medicare, which just added a prescription drug benefit, faces insolvency in 2020, according to the trust fund that runs it, and Social Security, if left alone, is projected to go broke in 2041. "This report tells us that we have made a lot of progress in improving the health and well-being of older Americans, but there is much left to do," NIA Director Richard Hodes said in a statement. Nation Media Group All rights reserved 2006