{"id":185495,"date":"2025-08-29T20:39:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T20:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/185495\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T20:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T20:39:14","slug":"older-americans-havent-returned-to-work-and-they-may-stay-out-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/185495\/","title":{"rendered":"Older Americans haven\u2019t returned to work \u2014 and they may stay out longer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">The pandemic scrambled the US labor market in countless ways \u2014 from empty offices to the work-from-home shift \u2014 but one of the stickiest changes might be the <b>exodus of workers<\/b>. In early 2020, the <a href=\"https:\/\/fred.stlouisfed.org\/graph\/?g=1L8b3\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">labor force participation rate<\/a> (the share of workers and job seekers out of the total working age population) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/the-us-labor-market-post-covid-whats-changed-and-what-hasnt\/#:~:text=the%20labor%20force%20participation%20rate%20dropped%20to%2060.1%25%2C%20the%20lowest%20since%20the%201970s.\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">plunged<\/a> to a <b>50-year low<\/b>, and still hasn\u2019t fully recovered to prepandemic levels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">Many workers, across <a href=\"https:\/\/fredblog.stlouisfed.org\/2023\/02\/who-left-the-labor-force-during-the-pandemic\/#:~:text=As%20the%20US%20began%20to%20emerge%20from%20the%20pandemic%2C%20many%20different%20news%20sources%20provided%20many%20different%20explanations%20for%20the%20labor%20shortage%3A%20from%20childcare%20disruptions%20and%20fear%20of%20illness%20keeping%20minimum%20wage%20workers%20out%20of%20the%20labor%20force%20to%20a%20new%20wave%20of%20retirements%20from%20older%20workers.\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">all age groups<\/a>, left the job market during Covid, whether from health concerns, childcare hurdles, or sheer burnout. But one cohort in particular hasn\u2019t returned to the workforce like others: older Americans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/fredblog.stlouisfed.org\/2025\/08\/the-rise-and-fall-of-excess-retirements\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">St. Louis Fed\u2019s analysis<\/a>, prime-age workers (aged 25-54) have fully bounced back, with their participation rate now even higher than prepandemic levels. Those 55 and older, however, remain about 2 percentage points below their pre-Covid participation rate.<\/p>\n<p><b>The Great Retirement Boom<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">Older Americans\u2019 mass exit was first triggered by what economists call \u201cexcess retirements.\u201d <b>Over 2 million<\/b> extra retirees left the workforce during 2020-22, above what demographic trends would have predicted \u2014 accounting for <b>more than half <\/b>of the rise in total retirements during those years, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/econres\/feds\/files\/2022081pap.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to<\/a> Federal Reserve Board researchers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">Many of those early exits came from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stlouisfed.org\/on-the-economy\/2025\/jul\/us-retirement-normalization-covid19-pandemic#:~:text=labor%20market%20conditions%20and%20government%20transfers%20explained%20the%20bulk%20of%20the%20increase%20in%20the%20excess%20retirement%20share.%20The%20reason%20is%20the%20following%3A%20In%20relative%20terms%2C%20they%20observed%20a%20larger%20increase%20in%20retirements%20for%20workers%20with%20lower%20incomes\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">lower-income workers<\/a> pushed out by job losses, who ended up relying on expanded unemployment benefits and stimulus checks. At the other end of the spectrum, wealthier baby boomers rode the 2020-21 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stlouisfed.org\/publications\/review\/2023\/08\/10\/pandemic-labor-force-participation-and-net-worth-fluctuations\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">asset boom<\/a> \u2014 stocks surged and home values jumped nearly <b>20%<\/b> \u2014 giving many the means to match their mindset to retire sooner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">In fact, however, \u201cexcess retirements\u201d had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stlouisfed.org\/on-the-economy\/2025\/jul\/us-retirement-normalization-covid19-pandemic#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20in%20late%202024%20and%20early%202025%2C%20the%20share%20of%20excess%20retirements%20actually%20fell%20below%20zero%2C%20indicating%20that%20the%20retirement%20share%20had%20fallen%20below%20its%20long%2Dterm%20trajectory\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">faded<\/a> by early 2025 toward more normal levels. But broader demographic trends are now the drag: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebri.org\/content\/new-research-finds-that-individuals-ages-55-or-older-in-the-american-labor-force-are-increasingly-becoming-older-and-more-diverse\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><b>nearly a third<\/b><\/a><b> <\/b>of the 55 and older workforce is now 65 or older, as boomers are aging into retirement en masse \u2014 while the younger population isn\u2019t growing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/baby-boomers-are-leaving-a-gap-in-the-american-workforce-and-young-adults-are-unlikely-to-fill-it-11764919\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">fast enough<\/a> to offset it.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"2025-08-27-LFPR\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;right:0;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0;border:none;margin:auto;display:block;width:0;height:0;min-width:100%;max-width:100%;min-height:100%;max-height:100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sherwood News<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-fiuwhu\">The shift isn\u2019t just pandemic-driven: it\u2019s been building gently for years. The latest New York Fed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorkfed.org\/microeconomics\/sce\/labor#\/expectations-retirement1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">survey<\/a> shows Americans\u2019 expectations of working full-time past 62 have fallen from <b>55%<\/b> in mid-2015 to <b>49%<\/b> in mid-2025. While the <a href=\"https:\/\/libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org\/2024\/05\/the-post-pandemic-shift-in-retirement-expectations-in-the-u-s\/#:~:text=It%20is%20unclear%20what%20factors%20or%20combination%20of%20factors%20are%20driving%20this%20persistent%20decline%3A\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-uubm0\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reasons<\/a> aren\u2019t clear \u2014 it could be wealth effects, part-time preferences, or simply a rethink of work \u2014 the line has been bending lower for at least the past decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pandemic scrambled the US labor market in countless ways \u2014 from empty offices to the work-from-home shift&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":185496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-185495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115113988183173828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}