There is a growing number of retirement-age women who are still in the work force, according to recent census figures. One of the most surprising recent U.S. economic trends: the increasing presence of women working well beyond traditional retirement age, into their late sixties, seventies and beyond. This will be the fastest-growing workforce segment in the next five years, according to the US Department of Labor.
The number of working women over age 65 rose 147 percent from 1977 to 2007; those over 75 rose 172 percent, according to the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the next five years, the number of older women in the workforce will grow at a rate faster than younger women and almost double that of older men, the bureau said.
The biggest jump in working women of retirement age was among those 65-69, whose numbers increased from 19.9 percent to 26.4 percent nationwide between 2000 and 2010.
Some growth can be attributed to economic travails, but many women say they are making up for lost time after raising children or being shut out of male-dominated jobs in their younger working days. Others can't imagine turning their backs on hard-won career gains.
Rising longevity and the aging baby boom partially explain the trend. Almost 75 percent of 55- to 64-year-olds will be working in 2018, compared with 65 percent in 2008, forecasts Northeastern University economist Barry Bluestone. Likewise, he thinks 30 percent of Americans age 65 to 74 will be working at that point, up from 25 percent in 2008.
Some researchers believe something else is at play. Elizabeth Fideler, a research fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College and the author of "Women Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and On the Job," has studied the cohort, and she believes they are making up for slow career starts.
"Many of them faced sex discrimination," she says. These women entered adulthood in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before the women's movement began, when the career choices they faced were narrow and help-wanted ads were segregated by sex.
At that time, most working women were funneled into nursing, teaching, secretarial or social work. Eventually, many switched to other careers. These were hard-won gains.
"They're damned if they're going to give it up now," says Fideler. "They've reached the peak of their careers and don't want to stop, even if their husbands have retired."
BLOOMING LATE
Ann Kaganoff, 76, is late bloomer. The Irvine, California, resident began her career as a grade-school teacher. She entered a doctoral program at the University of California at Santa Barbara in reading and language development at age 36.
"My dad said I needed to be a teacher so that I'd always be able to provide for myself," she says. "But in graduate school, I discovered I was a good analytical thinker, and that was exciting."
Kaganoff's career didn't really start taking off until 1985, when at age 50 she started and ran a clinic for children with reading and learning problems at the University of California at Irvine.
"I was learning new things constantly," she says.
In 1992 the clinic closed, a victim of budget cuts at the university. Today, Kaganoff feels that she's at the peak of her professional growth with a private therapy practice in Irvine, and she doesn't see herself stepping away anytime soon.
"The experiences are so cumulative," she says. "Every time I walk into a meeting, I realize the wealth of background I have to draw upon."
Fideler fits the profile. She's 70 and already at work on a follow-up book on the second-fastest-growing age group in the labor force: men over age 65.
Older men keep working for the same career achievement and income rewards that motivate women. But perhaps Fideler will find that men simply grow tired of watching their wives leave for work every morning, and of spending the day by themselves.
Source here. (Editing by Linda Stern, Chelsea Emery and Douglas Royalty)
The number of working women over age 65 rose 147 percent from 1977 to 2007; those over 75 rose 172 percent, according to the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the next five years, the number of older women in the workforce will grow at a rate faster than younger women and almost double that of older men, the bureau said.
The biggest jump in working women of retirement age was among those 65-69, whose numbers increased from 19.9 percent to 26.4 percent nationwide between 2000 and 2010.
In Central Florida, the percentage of working women 65-69 rose from 18.8 percent to 26 percent, while men of the same age who were still working declined from 29.2 percent to 22.4 percent
What worries many of them most is unemployment. The fear is if they were fired or left their jobs who would hire a person who is over 70?
The census figures indicate that the Great Recession has forced more women to postpone retirement, said professor Stephen Golant, a University of Florida gerontologist.
"It suggests to me they are delaying retirement," Golant said. "That means to me they need more income because their personal wealth declined."
In the state of Florida, 10.8 percent of women 65 and older were working in 2011 — and nearly 40 percent of those were employed full time, according to the census. Nationwide, 12.7 percent of retirement-age women were still in the work force, with 38.2 percent of them working full-time jobs.
For those younger retirement-age working women, this trend may be the harbinger of things to come. Within the age group, 70-74, the percentage went up from 9.9 percent to 10.5 percent in Central Florida
Some growth can be attributed to economic travails, but many women say they are making up for lost time after raising children or being shut out of male-dominated jobs in their younger working days. Others can't imagine turning their backs on hard-won career gains.
Rising longevity and the aging baby boom partially explain the trend. Almost 75 percent of 55- to 64-year-olds will be working in 2018, compared with 65 percent in 2008, forecasts Northeastern University economist Barry Bluestone. Likewise, he thinks 30 percent of Americans age 65 to 74 will be working at that point, up from 25 percent in 2008.
Some researchers believe something else is at play. Elizabeth Fideler, a research fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College and the author of "Women Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and On the Job," has studied the cohort, and she believes they are making up for slow career starts.
"Many of them faced sex discrimination," she says. These women entered adulthood in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before the women's movement began, when the career choices they faced were narrow and help-wanted ads were segregated by sex.
At that time, most working women were funneled into nursing, teaching, secretarial or social work. Eventually, many switched to other careers. These were hard-won gains.
"They're damned if they're going to give it up now," says Fideler. "They've reached the peak of their careers and don't want to stop, even if their husbands have retired."
BLOOMING LATE
Ann Kaganoff, 76, is late bloomer. The Irvine, California, resident began her career as a grade-school teacher. She entered a doctoral program at the University of California at Santa Barbara in reading and language development at age 36.
"My dad said I needed to be a teacher so that I'd always be able to provide for myself," she says. "But in graduate school, I discovered I was a good analytical thinker, and that was exciting."
Kaganoff's career didn't really start taking off until 1985, when at age 50 she started and ran a clinic for children with reading and learning problems at the University of California at Irvine.
"I was learning new things constantly," she says.
In 1992 the clinic closed, a victim of budget cuts at the university. Today, Kaganoff feels that she's at the peak of her professional growth with a private therapy practice in Irvine, and she doesn't see herself stepping away anytime soon.
"The experiences are so cumulative," she says. "Every time I walk into a meeting, I realize the wealth of background I have to draw upon."
Fideler fits the profile. She's 70 and already at work on a follow-up book on the second-fastest-growing age group in the labor force: men over age 65.
Older men keep working for the same career achievement and income rewards that motivate women. But perhaps Fideler will find that men simply grow tired of watching their wives leave for work every morning, and of spending the day by themselves.
Source here. (Editing by Linda Stern, Chelsea Emery and Douglas Royalty)
