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Businesses United States

These Are the Jobs That Keep Older Americans Working (bloomberg.com) 129

Occupations with the highest share of workers older than 65 have changed little, data from the past seven decades show. Bloomberg Businessweek: Americans may dream about being able to go off the clock when they reach retirement age, but a good number simply can't or won't. We compiled data on the occupations with the highest share of workers older than 65, going back seven decades. The job types held remarkably steady over the decades (farmers, tailors and clergy). A few faded out of the data with time -- blacksmiths, furriers and household washers, for instance. The data can't fully tell us why people in some professions keep at it longer than others. But we know they're largely low-paying jobs, which means workers have likely struggled to put aside money for retirement.
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These Are the Jobs That Keep Older Americans Working

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  • Way of Life (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 ) on Monday December 25, 2023 @04:04PM (#64105145)
    I do not know about tailors, but farming and being a clergy person are a way of life, not a job. It is not the kind of thing you retire from until you are physically or mentally incapable of doing it anymore.
    • Re:Way of Life (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday December 25, 2023 @05:31PM (#64105257)

      Farming is often a family business, and you live where you work. Work is seasonal, with lots of work in the spring and fall, but much less in winter and summer.

      So if a son or daughter takes over the running of the farm, Mom and Dad are still living there and will jump in to help with planting and harvesting.

      My mom farmed until she was 87.

    • Knew a lawyer who retired to a farmer. Kind a shocked me to here sbout is time spent in the capital building, as i only knew him as an 80+ sheep herder.

      He started in his late 50's as a farmer.

    • by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

      More significant than that - these are not jobs which you can simply be 'trained into', for the most part. This is skilled labor, not unskilled.

      It takes years and years to become a proficient farmer, blacksmith, furriers, farrier, rancher, and so on. These are legacy trades, traditionally done generationally within families.

      And if your family isn't doing these things, you're unlikely to pick it up yourself. Once the line ends, so does the trade. The barrier is simply too high, and it's why even today blacks

      • by jvkjvk ( 102057 )

        "It takes years and years to become a proficient farmer...rancher... These are legacy trades, traditionally done generationally within families."

        I don't know about the rest of your list, but these two are most definitely family run, in general.

    • Living as I do in an area with lots of high-end retirees, I do residential IT consulting for my fellow chrono-Americans.

    • Also, the profession with the largest proportion of geriatrics is the US Senate. Everything else lags waaay behind.
    • by jvkjvk ( 102057 )

      Clergy often retire. I don't know what you are talking about. I know several retired clergy.
      Farmers often give the farm to their children, as well, effectively retiring to a country house. Several members of my extended family *were* farmers, and retired.

      So, your examples don't seem to hold up.

  • by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Monday December 25, 2023 @04:06PM (#64105151)

    I can't imagine identifying as a 'retail clerk', but I am a computer geek and so long as I can keep up and be useful I intend to continue as one (though eventually working fewer hours).

    I can deal with the occasional drooling moron if I get some pleasure out of helping people with real computer issues. I like problem solving, I know my way around computers, networks, and such. The money isn't the entire point, it's that fiddling around solving computer problems gives me some degree of personal fulfillment and I won't have that source once I retire fully.

    Maybe one day I'll figure out how to 'be retired', but I'm a lot further from that than I am from retirement age.

    Similarly, I'm pretty sure people like farmers aren't simply 'people who work on farms', but people who have a lot of their personal identity and self-worth wrapped up in the work. I've had a few doctors retire on me who did so long after retirement age, because they too seemed to 'be their job'. I seriously doubt it was the money for them.

    • by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Monday December 25, 2023 @04:40PM (#64105197)

      I like problem solving, I know my way around computers, networks, and such. The money isn't the entire point, it's that fiddling around solving computer problems gives me some degree of personal fulfillment and I won't have that source once I retire fully.

      I was fortunate to be able to retire fairly young (52) thanks to a good unionized public sector IT job with a well managed defined benefit pension plan. I'm financially secure and don't actually need to work, but I still do a part time term position now and then with my former employer just so I can keep my skills up to date (even though I don't really need them anymore), and so I can continue to play with leading edge enterprise class hardware that I would not be able to otherwise. If I had hated my job I'd obviously run and never go back, but I actually kind of enjoy it and the extra cash lets me spend more on my hobbies - cars, audio, shooting sports, etc. when I am not working. If you enjoy what you do, there really is no great rush to leave it all behind.

    • by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Interesting. I worked in software development for 33 years. For 19 of those years, I owned my own software company. So it really was my life.

      But starting about 5 years ago, after I sold my company, I started to dislike the tech industry and became more and more disillusioned. I retired April 2023 relatively young and assumed I'd spend time on my hobby software projects.

      Well... I didn't, really. Apart from one project that I enjoy maintaining, I don't miss software development at all. If I never wr

      • The surest way to turn something you love into something you hate is to make it your job.

        • by dskoll ( 99328 )

          I don't hate programming; I enjoyed it while I did it. But I no longer feel a burning need to do it any more.

      • by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

        I'm a computer geek as well and I do enjoy hacking around with computers. But last year I bought my local tabletop game store as kind of a retirement "job" and applied my computer experience to the shop. We've had the best year in the past 11 years since I took over and we're moving to a larger space. It's been a lot of fun and certainly educational. It's also quite a bit different than being a computer geek as now I have 7 employees (up from 4 when I took over) and there's a lot of work that folks may not

  • What about all of those "McJobs" out there in the service industries ...

    ... like fast food, grocery stores, liquor stores, gas stations, coffee shops, breakfast houses, day care centers, Lyft-Uber-GrubHub drivers, teachers (not the ones on OnlyFans) and so on?

    I doubt that any of those workers make much money to set aside for retirement.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 25, 2023 @04:36PM (#64105185)

    Trolling really is the best retirement job.

  • by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Monday December 25, 2023 @04:42PM (#64105201)

    paywall, can't read
    As an old (70) phart, I split jobs into two broad classes...
      Something you love that you get paid for
      Something you hate but need the money to survive

    I'm an engineer, inventor and craftsman. When I was younger, I got paid really well to do it
    Now, semi-retired, I still get paid to do it, but would do it as a hobby if the money stopped

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Engineers have a rare advantage here: There will never be enough and experience makes them so much better.

      • There may never be enough engineers but older engineers are more susceptible to layoff, from what I've seen. With experience comes higher pay. With higher pay comes higher likelihood of being "released" when a downturn or a merger comes along.
        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          True. Although firing all the experienced engineers often spells the end of a company or that part of the company. It is a really stupid move.

        • Just when you thought things couldn't GET more consolidated, another merger comes along and wipes out the next 3 years of productivity!
  • A few faded out of the data with time -- blacksmiths, ...

    That one seems to be an up-and-coming hobby. From, Metal, Fire, ‘Hitting Stuff Hard’: Everybody Wants to Be a Blacksmith Now [nytimes.com]:

    Amateur blacksmithing has gained traction in recent years. (So has bladesmithing, the art of making knives and daggers.) Weekend classes can fill up months in advance. "Forged in Fire," [history.com] a bladesmithing competition show on the History Channel that has inspired many hobbyists, keeps getting renewed. And as more enthusiasts join the fray, the price of anvils [browncountyforge.com] has risen.

    "We can’t offer enough intro classes," said Matthew Berry, who owns in Wolcott, Conn., with two other champions of "Forged in Fire." An introductory class costs about $185 per person. [dragonsbreathforge.com]

    "I’ll typically book out two to four months in advance," said Brandon Hyner, 25, another blacksmith in Connecticut. He usually works in New London and charges about $275 for a half-day intro class. "I fill up every time."

  • by jasnw ( 1913892 )
    I am an ionospheric physicist and I'm still working at age 75. Is that in their list?
  • I've been designing, building and selling embedded controllers for 25 years. I'd love to retire but my customers are still depending on me and I don't have enough business to hire and pay help. I attended a class for inspection, calibration and maintenance of airport weather stations a few years ago. Of the 12-15 people attending, there was only one person under 50 at the class.
  • Unfortunately, that occupation seems to keep Americans working well past their prime.

  • by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Monday December 25, 2023 @08:28PM (#64105529)
    /. should not allow article behind paywalls. I cannot read the article, so how can I validly comment?
  • I'm not going to pay $100 per year to read one article on Bloomberg. Jesus H. Christ. Stop posting this stuff or put up a paywall warning like REDDIT requires on forums.
  • Some people feel that their jobs, no matter how non-elite are their way of contributing to society and as a matter of pride and self-worth they continue to work as ling as they can.

    Of course others continue to work out of economic necessity
  • This is simply the failure of social democracy, which isn't socialism, as many, rather vocal 'Muricans would have us believe, & yes, the good ol' USofA is supposed to be a social democracy too, except for the universal healthcare bit.

    Decades of rampant wealth inequality & the resulting rich & powerful few corrupting our democracies, is leading us back to the dire economic conditions & injustices that preceded extremist political ideologies & two world wars.

    We are not our jobs, we a
  • I like programming, and system integration, and solving problems.

    I'd probably do it anyway, in some form or other ... I'll be happy to let people keep paying me for it though.

  • They left out husbands.

  • As of the ->1990- US census, "family farming" was no longer a "recognized occupation", because under 1.5% of the population did it. It's all agribusiness, and most of the rest come close, or are, "hobby farms" - and I say that as I have very close friends in se Indiana who have 40 acres... but she's a chemist and he's a computer regulatory consultant.

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