New Pew Report: Recession Turns a Graying Office Grayer

The Pew Research Center released a report September 3 noting two distinct trends in the labor force: older adults are working longer, and younger adults are waiting longer to start working.

The study cites one government estimate that “93% of the growth in the US labor force from 2006 to 2016 will be among workers ages 55 and older” and notes that the Center’s own survey, conducted earlier this year, shows that “a majority (54%) of workers ages 65 and older say the main reason they work is that they want to. Just 17% say the main reason is that they need the paycheck. An additional 27% say they’re motivated by a mix of desire and need.” The current economic crisis has increased the need part of that equation; the same survey reveals that 40% of adults who are working past the median retirement age of 62 say they are doing so because of the recession.

Although older adults are working longer, the proportion of women has not increased: “After marching steadily upward for five decades, the labor force participation rate of women has essentially flattened out. It now stands at 59%, slightly below the 60% peak it reached in 2000 at the end of a period of robust economic growth, and about 13 percentage points below the current rate for men.”

Among its other key findings:

A summary of the report can be found here , and includes a link to the PDF of the full report.