Millions are "Unretiring"

[Tekward]

I was surprised by the number of retirees returning to w*rk, including potential SS complications. It reminds me of the military maxim: "All plans are great until the first shot's fired".

"Roughly 1.5 million retirees have unretired and reentered the U.S. labor market over the past year, Nick Bunker, the director of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab, told Yahoo Money.“That’s more than 3% of retired workers who have made the decision to return to work, a continuation of a trend that started in the spring of last year,” he said."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/retirees-social-security-earnings-test-112641391.html

 

[Gotadimple]

Or, with so many open positions available, it may be tempting to work given signing bonuses or other perks of rejoining the work force. It does impact Social Security payments, tho'

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I have had various p/t jobs (15-20 hours/week) off and on during my four years of retirement. I like it. I hate to admit it, but I would do more volunteer work except for one fear. I worry about running out of steam to show up every time without a paycheck (however trivial) in return. Also, I need flexibility for ski season! I like to be able to drop everything when there's good snow, which is all too rare these days.

 

[Major Tom]

I'm not sure that I'd trust the director of an employment outfit to give accurate figures on how many people are "unretiring". It's in his company's interests to promote this as a growing and fashionable trend. Also, out of those 1.5 million, if that is indeed* a reliable figure, how many -

1) Actually planned for retirement, got their figures wrong, and had to go back to work for the money,

2) Slipped out of the work force due to the pandemic, and are now finding their way back in (i.e. didn't plan on retiring at all),

3) Are going back to work, not for the money, but because they found they were getting a little bored being retired.

In other words, how does he define "retired"? We're coming out of a pandemic that did quite a number on employment figures. A lot of people are finding their way back into the workforce. I question how many of the 1.5 million quoted figure were willing retirees at the time?


*See what I did there?

 

[W2R]

I'm not sure that I'd trust the director of an employment outfit, to give accurate figures on how many people are "unretiring". It's in his company's interests to promote this as a growing and fashionable trend. Also, out of those 1.5 million, if that is indeed* a reliable figure, how many -

1) Actually planned for retirement, got their figures wrong, and had to go back to work for the money,

2) Slipped out of the work force due to the pandemic, and are now finding their way back in (i.e. didn't plan on retiring at all),

3) Are going back to work, not for the money, but because they found they were getting a little bored being retired.

In other words, how does he define "retired"? We're coming out of a pandemic that did quite a number on employment figures. A lot of people are finding their way back into the workforce. I question how many of the 1.5 million quoted figure were willing retirees at the time?


*See what I did there?

My guess is that there are a lot more people in "2)" than we think! The past 2-3 years have been pretty crazy for many people, I think.

 

[Turbo29]

My employer reached out to me and several other retirees offering part time (<19.99hr/wk) work. Currently I work for them ~15hr/wk on a schedule of my choosing.

I took SS shortly after my full retirement age so I am carefully monitoring my work so I can avoid the dreaded tax torpedo.

 

[MichaelB]

This has been the norm for quite a few years. We’re just getting back to the “un-retirement rate” of the ore-pandemic era. https://news.yahoo.com/older-workers-unretire-after-leaving-the-workforce-210210212.html. Census bureau data has age breakdowns for those interested.

 

[jim584672]

I'd rather sleep under a bridge.

 

[Tekward]

Mods, we may have a Troll....

I'd rather sleep under a bridge.

 

[street]

More boomers are of age to retire so that numbers go up. The pandemic has a huge effect on people returning to the work force for many different reasons. People that had a plan and could retire are entering the work force because of many reasons also and not all of them need the money. Boredom is the biggest culprit for returning IMO.

 

[disneysteve]

2) Slipped out of the work force due to the pandemic, and are now finding their way back in (i.e. didn't plan on retiring at all),

I suspect this is the bulk of it. People who hadn't planned to retire but were forced out either because their job closed or they left voluntarily rather than continue to expose themselves to COVID every day. Now that the risk is much lower thanks to vaccines and treatment options, they're comfortable rejoining the workforce.

 

[HF63]

I'd rather sleep under a bridge.

Same here

 

[Bigdawg]

This has been the norm for quite a few years. We’re just getting back to the “un-retirement rate” of the ore-pandemic era. https://news.yahoo.com/older-workers-unretire-after-leaving-the-workforce-210210212.html. Census bureau data has age breakdowns for those interested.

Thanks for this. The first question that came to mind when I saw this thread was "what is the yearly avg before COVID?" So basically "nothing to see here"!

 

[Dtail]

So the S&P is down ~10% and one has to go back to work. Sounds like very poor planning to me, or more likely that the stats aren't totally accurate.
The SS give back should not really be a surprise for DIY investors or those with an FA.

 

[jimbee]

Thanks for this. The first question that came to mind when I saw this thread was "what is the yearly avg before COVID?" So basically "nothing to see here"!

That's fairly consistent for articles on Yahoo's finance site.

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for this. The first question that came to mind when I saw this thread was "what is the yearly avg before COVID?" So basically "nothing to see here"!

Not new, but I think it’s still an interesting topic and relevant to us. I’d like to see analysis of why people return to work and not just write it off as “they didn’t plan well”.

 

[Markola]

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that people are returning to work so that they can get money.

 

[Born2Fish]

I'd rather sleep under a bridge.

Mods, we may have a Troll....

+1.

I see what you did there.

 

[GenXguy]

So the S&P is down ~10% and one has to go back to work. Sounds like very poor planning to me, or more likely that the stats aren't totally accurate.
The SS give back should not really be a surprise for DIY investors or those with an FA.

S&P was down around 23% at one point.

But then there's the 15% inflation on top of it over the last 2+ years, still high with prices continuing to climb quickly.

And it's not always a matter of having to go back to work, but choosing to because the budget won't allow as much discretionary spending as you were expecting, even if you can still cover the bills. I never retired, but it's the soaring inflation, which has NOT stopped skyrocketing yet, that has caused me to delay retirement to pad my discretionary budget. So, it's no surprise that some people would re-enter workforce for the same reason, even though their math is correct. So they save some more money so that they can travel further to find good pickleball opponents.

 

[RobbieB]

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that people are returning to work so that they can get money.

Yeah, easy button. Work for money, I sure ain't workin' for free!

 

[GenXguy]

Yeah, easy button. Work for money, I sure ain't workin' for free!

A lot of people do.... volunteering.

 

[RobbieB]

More power to them!

Me, I sure ain't workin' for free. Unless it's my stuff of course. I work (not for free, but so I don't have to pay another guy) on my boats, motorcycles, house and other stuff that comes up as needed.

Others can do whatever they want to do.

 

[Aerides]

So the S&P is down ~10% and one has to go back to work. Sounds like very poor planning to me, or more likely that the stats aren't totally accurate.
The SS give back should not really be a surprise for DIY investors or those with an FA.

Basic economics might not be a major driver. I recall a whole bunch of stats about people retiring early because of the events of 2020 and such, maybe many of them weren't quite ready, but are now going back since workplaces are reopened, and they miss the social part? If those people originally hadn't planned to retire, and didn't particularly want to, ...eh maybe the old grass looked green again.

 

[NW-Bound]

I'd rather sleep under a bridge.

This is going to be harder.


For example, the city of Quangdong in China has installed these spikes for obvious reason. Several other Western towns have done the same.

 

[RobbieB]

I agree. There's a big difference between "forced out" and "here's my notice"