This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 28, 2009 - After nearly a decade working as an occupational therapist, Jeanne Hahn retired several years ago when she became eligible to receive Social Security. She sold her home, gave away most of her possessions and moved into a mobile home with her husband.
Through the social service agency Kingdom House, Hahn has earned a stipend by being a companion to a 103-year-old woman. But recently, the Fenton resident decided that her limited income wasn't enough.
"We were just scraping by, and I don't like that feeling," Hahn said. "I want to have a little extra money" that will go toward paying for her two sons' renovation of the couple's mobile home.
So on Tuesday, Hahn interviewed to be a part-time occupational therapist assistant at a nursing home.
As retirement portfolios diminish and cash on hand becomes short, scores of people who thought they'd ease into retirement are reversing course. For some, returning to work at least part time is a lifestyle choice. But for others it has become a financial necessity. Whatever the reason, employers are noticing an increase in interest from workers in their 50s or older.
At Straub's Markets, a cashier who retired in 2000 from the company is working again at age 70. An 84-year-old employee began at the Ellisville location last month after a 42-year career at Walgreens and eight years in retirement. Toni Durham, human resources manager for Straub's, said that two employees recently decided to defer retirement until next year.
"We are hearing anecdotally that people who have stopped working and thought they had the means with which to retire are seeking contract or temporary work," said Bonny Filandrinos, founder and president of Staffing Solutions Inc., a staffing agency that specializes in the placement of administrative support, marketing support and human resources personnel.
Some job seekers are hoping that temporary work will be a stopgap until their financial portfolios recover, Filandrinos said. But others realize that employment is more than a short-term answer to their financial problems. They are re-entering the workforce for the foreseeable future.
WITH AND WITHOUT JOBS
December figures show that more than 1.4 million people 55 or older nationwide were without jobs and looking for work -- roughly 560,000 more people than a year earlier, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute . Since the start of the current recession in December 2007, the unemployment rate for this age group has risen from 3.1 percent to 4.9 percent. The current rate is the highest it has been in more than 25 years.
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When older workers lose jobs, it typically takes them longer to find new work. In December, 32 percent of job seekers age 55 and over had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more. Many older workers who lose their jobs stop searching for future employment out of frustration, the AARP report shows. This means the reported unemployment rate understates the percentage of older workers who would like to be employed but aren't.
Yet even as unemployment rates rise for older workers, the number of older people with jobs continues to increase -- a sign of a growing population of people over the age of 55. Specifically, the number of employed people 55 and older grew by more than 875,000 from December 2007 to last month.
Employment and unemployment figures for older Missourians aren't current enough to track trends relating to the economic downturn. According to the Missouri Senior Report , published by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, about 90,000 Missourians over 65 were in the workforce in 2006, the last year of survey results. That's about 19,000 in the county and 8,700 in the city. All indications are that those numbers have increased.
"It makes intuitive sense that when the economy lags people would want to get back into the workforce," said Mary Bruton, director of workforce information at the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.
Rex Miller, a program director for the city office of the AARP Foundation, said he's running into more job seekers who are above the poverty level and looking for at least part-time employment. But employers who typically hire low-income St. Louis residents increasingly say they have frozen hiring. For those who are 55 or older and considered low income, the AARP offers a work search program that matches job seekers with social services agencies for part-time employment.
MAPPING THEIR FUTURE
Labor force participation among older workers has been increasing since the early 1990s, marking a reversal of a previously longstanding trend toward early retirement. Unlike in past eras, labor force participation rates among people 55 and older have continued to increase during recessions.
Steven A. Sass, associate director for research at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College , said it wouldn't surprise him to see the average retirement age rise from the current 63 to 66 or 67. The shift from defined benefit pension plans (in which companies make a commitment to a specific retirement payout) to defined contribution plans (in which individuals are susceptible to market fluctuations) helps to explain why some workers have felt the need to work longer as their safety net has decreased.
A recent AARP study shows that during the last year nearly one quarter of workers 45 or above have increased the number of hours they work and one in five has stopped putting money into a 401(k), IRA or other retirement account. And according to research from Sass' center, Social Security will constitute a smaller portion of household income for people who retire at any given age.
Older employees who come out of retirement often take a pay cut when they return to work. Some accept the salary because they feel pressured to accept any offer; others are less concerned about pay than job flexibility and work environment, Sass said.
Hope Valvero, manager of talent acquisition for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, said that over the past few months she has increasingly seen seemingly overqualified applicants vying for middle management openings. It's a mixture of people who have been laid off and those who are looking to switch jobs.
"The main thing for us is we have the opportunity to get much more experienced employees than we might have been able to get before," Valvero said. "The caliber of candidate has upgraded; there are more years in the workforce and depth and breadth of knowledge."
Older workers have some advantages in the marketplace, Sass said. They tend to be reliable and good with customers. Still, the thought of higher health-insurance costs likely scares away some employers, as well.
Health care is one of the hottest fields for older workers, Sass said. Government and retail jobs also make the list, according to Patrick Rafter, vice president of communications for retirementjobs.com , a four-year-old online job board specifically for people over 50. The site, chosen by AARP as its official job search partner, has seen a marked increase in traffic since the economy worsened.
"We are seeing more people coming to the site who previously were retired but who either need to get back or want to get back and aren't ready to play shuffleboard," Rafter said.
FAMILIAR AND UNFAMILIAR WORKPLACES
For some job seekers, the thought of returning to a familiar setting is appealing. Monsanto is among the companies that offer a program in which past employees can return for temporary assignments.
Growing frustrated with the cost and time associated with training part-time employees from the outside, Monsanto executives instituted its program in 1991 and began offering spots for retirees to return. Former employees who left the company in what's deemed "good standing" can now also return as temporary employees.
The Resource Re-entry Center, as the program is called, currently involves about 280 former employees and is the largest provider of contingent labor for the company. Robin Bohme, operations specialist at Monsanto, said the company has found that retirees and past employees are perfect fits to return because they are flexible and already know the ropes.
"It's easy for them to step into these on-call positions," Bohme said. "They've already been trained here and have a network set up and relationships established."
At Monsanto, the return employees often don't go back into the same type of work. As part of the program, their interests are matched with current temporary assignments at the company.
Often times, job seekers want an entirely different work experience. Take Ron Glazer, a retired social worker turned bank teller. Glazer, 53, took an early retirement option and began collecting his pension in August 2007. He wanted to spend more time with his family and expected to take an extended time without working. Instead, he ended up helping out part time at a local restaurant opened by his cousin. Months later he decided to leave that job and work as a part-time teller. After nearly 30 years in the public sector, Glazer said he wanted a change of scene.
"I don't feel retired," Glazer said. "I ended one career and am doing other things now. I'm fortunate given the economy that I have the luxury of having a pension, working part-time and doing things I wouldn't have been able to do ordinarily."
Tips for the job hunt
Tips from retirement jobs.com on how older job seekers can be more employable
Learn computer skills, including word processing, e-mail, Internet searching
Get wired and particularly have an e-mail address
Go mobile; a cellular phone is no longer optional for job seekers
Keep healthy; employers are justifiably concerned about the health and fitness of employees
Keep it neat - like it or not, personal appearance can help or hurt a job seeker
Keep a positive and proud outlook; be proud of your age, maturity, judgment, skills and accomplishments
Broaden your horizons; consider turning an avocation into an income stream or going back to school to brush up on a skill or get a certification that could let you switch to a new field or launch a business.
Seek out Uncle Sam. In a recession, while private employers may be cutting back, the government continues to hire for a variety of its departments and agencies.
Seek out age-friendly employers. Be aware that many companies are deliberately looking for older candidates.
-Source retirementjobs.com
Elia Powers is a freelance writer in St. Louis.