Workforce Graying but Majority of Senior Citizens
Work Because They Want To, Pew Finds
93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force from 2006
to 2016 will be among workers ages 55 and older
Sept. 3, 2009 - The American work force is graying
-- and not just because the American population itself is graying. Older
adults are staying in the labor force longer, and younger adults are
staying out of it longer. Both trends took shape about two decades ago,
according to the Pew Research Center, and both have intensified during
the current recession. And both are expected to continue after the
economy recovers.
According to one government estimate, 93% of the
growth in the U.S. labor force from 2006 to 2016 will be among workers
ages 55 and older.
Demographic and economic factors explain some --
but not all -- of these changes. Attitudes about work also play an
important role -- in particular, the growing desire of an aging but
healthy population to stay active well into the later years of life.
A new nationwide survey by the Pew Research
Center's Social & Demographic Trends project finds 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.
When asked to identify specific reasons for
working, older workers emphasize psychological and social factors: "to
feel useful"; "to give myself something to do"; "to be with other
people." Younger and middle-aged workers are much more inclined to cite
classic pocketbook considerations: "to support myself and my family";
"to live independently"; "to qualify for retirement benefits"; "to
receive health care benefits."
To be sure, the current state of the economy has
influenced nearly everyone's calculations about work to some extent. But
the recession appears to be having a very different impact, depending on
age -- keeping older adults in the labor force and younger ones out of
it.
According to the Pew Research survey, nearly
four-in-ten adults who are working past the median retirement age of 62
say they have delayed their retirement because of the recession. Among
workers ages 50 to 61, fully 63% say they might have to push back their
expected retirement date because of current economic conditions.
All
of these survey findings are consistent with a Pew Research Center
analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data that show that the labor force
participation rate of older adults, which declined from 1950 until the
middle of the 1980s, has been rising ever since. This trend has
accelerated during this decade, especially in the current recession.
At the other end of the age spectrum, census data
show that in the current decade, a rising share of Americans ages 16 to
24 are in school and a declining share are in the labor force -- 57%
today versus 66% in 2000.
The Pew Research survey identifies two factors that
help explain these changing patterns among the young. First, a growing
share of the public says that a person needs a college education to get
ahead in life; about three-quarters (73%) of the public feels this way
now, up from about half (49%) in 1978. Second, younger adults (like all
adults) are being hit hard by the recession, and some may have become
discouraged and dropped out of the labor market.
Overall, more than four-in-ten nonworking people
ages 16 to 24 say they've looked for work but can't find anything.
Gender Shifts
the work force that's changing. There are also new
developments on the gender front -- but here, the most compelling story
of the decade is not the presence of change but the absence of change.
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.
Even in an era of growing gender parity in the workplace, the
work/family trade-off continues to be much more complicated for women
than for men.
The Pew Research survey dramatizes these disparities; it
finds that nonworking women are nine times as likely as nonworking men
to cite the tug of family responsibility as a key reason for not having
a job. The survey also finds that only a small share of the public --
12% -- thinks the ideal situation for a mother of young children is to
work full time outside the home.
declined in this decade -- just as it has every
decade since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping such records
in 1948. As of June 2009, it stood at 72%, the lowest level in modern
history.
The current economic downturn has hit men harder than women,
with men suffering about two-thirds of all recession-related job losses.
As often happens in a recession, a portion of these newly unemployed
workers have become discouraged about finding jobs and have dropped out
of the labor force altogether.
Other Findings
Older workers are the
happiest workers. Some 54% of workers ages 65 and older say they
are "completely satisfied" with their job, compared with just
29% of workers ages 16 to 64.
This report is based on a Pew Research Center
analysis of long-term trends in survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau
as well as on Pew Research's own survey of a representative national
sample of 1,815 people ages 16 and older conducted from July 20 to Aug.
2, 2009. Among its other key findings:
● Security trumps salary. By a ratio of nearly
two-to-one, survey respondents say they would prefer a job that offers
better security (59%) over one that offers higher pay (33%) but less
stability. It's not the recession that drives this preference. A similar
question asked by the General Social Survey in 1989 (when the economy
was in the midst of an expansion) produced a similar result.
● Despite tough times, job satisfaction remains
high. Even in the face of widespread layoffs, pay freezes and
involuntary furloughs, nine-in-ten employed adults say they are either
completely (30%) or mostly (60%) satisfied with their job. In recent
decades, levels of job satisfaction have tended to remain stable through
good times and bad.
● Older workers are the happiest workers. Some
54% of workers ages 65 and older say they are "completely satisfied"
with their job, compared with just 29% of workers ages 16 to 64. The
explanation lies in figures cited above -- a high percentage of these
workers are working because they want to, not because they need to.
● Retirement is not always voluntary. Only about
half (51%) of all current retirees say they retired because they wanted
to. About a third (32%) say they had to retire for health or other
reasons, and about one-in-ten (9%) say their employer forced them to
retire.
● Even so, retirement gets high marks. More than
half of all retirees (57%) say their retirement has turned out to be
very satisfying; an additional 23% say it has been fairly satisfying.
Only about one-in-six describe retirement as not too (10%) or not at all
(6%) satisfying.
● The public is skeptical about full-time
working moms. Just 14% of men and 10% of women say that a full-time job
is the "ideal" situation for a woman who has a young child. A plurality
of the public (44%) say a part-time job is ideal for such a mother,
while a sizable minority (38%) say the ideal situation is for her not to
work outside the home at all.
● Most working moms would rather have a
part-time job. Among mothers of young children who have a full-time job
outside the home, six-in-ten (61%) say they would prefer to work part
time. By contrast, just 19% of fathers who have a full-time job and a
young child say they would prefer to work part time.
Sept. 3, 2009 - The American work force is graying
-- and not just because the American population itself is graying. Older
adults are staying in the labor force longer, and younger adults are
staying out of it longer. Both trends took shape about two decades ago,
according to the Pew Research Center, and both have intensified during
the current recession. And both are expected to continue after the
economy recovers. 
All
of these survey findings are consistent with a Pew Research Center
analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data that show that the labor force
participation rate of older adults, which declined from 1950 until the
middle of the 1980s, has been rising ever since. This trend has
accelerated during this decade, especially in the current recession.
Gender Shifts