After retiring less than a year ago, Sylvia, 64, is back at work.
The less than $2,000 a month she receives in Social Security isn’t enough to pay her bills, and she has little retirement savings, so she recently started a job as a cashier.
Sylvia is one of many older adults who have shared their retirement stories with Business Insider in recent months. Some said they returned to work out of financial necessity; others didn’t retire to stay active and combat loneliness. They are among more than 2,000 Americans who responded to a reader survey about their regrets in their lives. This story is part of an ongoing series.
Sylvia, who asked to use only her first name for privacy reasons, hoped to get a part-time job in education or local government near Albany, New York. Although she has decades of experience and has submitted hundreds of job applications, she has had no luck getting hired in her field and has opted to work in the grocery store.
Now Sylvia is not sure if she will ever be able to stop working. She said she is “angry” with herself for not building a strong financial foundation for her retirement. She thought Social Security would be enough to get by. The manual labor at the grocery store takes a toll on her body and mind, but she said she needs the money.
“I’m scanning groceries and thinking, ‘I have a master’s degree, I recently received an award from one of our state senators and I can’t get professional work,’” Sylvia told BI. “Can you believe that?”
Sylvia’s experience is not unusual. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that there were 2.4 million excess retirements in the U.S. when the pandemic hit in 2020, meaning the number of retirees far exceeded the Fed’s forecast. However, an Indeed Hiring Lab analysis of Census data at the individual level found that 1.5 million retirees had returned to work as of March 2022.
In a study published in May, wealth manager T. Rowe Price estimates that 48% of those in retirement need their paychecks, while 45% choose to work for social and emotional benefits. The study was based on survey responses from 2,895 401(k) plan participants and 1,136 2022 retirees.
In addition, one in five adults age 50 and older, surveyed in January by AARP and the University of Chicago research firm NORC, said they had no retirement savings.
But returning to work as an older American is not that easy. These job seekers may have difficulty finding a job because of age discrimination in the hiring process, says Jessica Johnston, senior director of the National Council on Aging’s Center for Economic Well-Being. They may also experience difficulty finding employment because their skills do not meet changing technological requirements.
“For people trying to re-enter, many of them need job training,” she said. “And the amount of digital literacy required to do a lot of even part-time work is not insignificant.”
Some retirees who return to the labor market for financial reasons are also aware of this too many could cost them more in lost benefits than in take-home pay. Government assistance programs that some older Americans rely on, such as Medicaid or SNAP, have income ceilings. For example, a single person in Utah like Claudia Rufino must keep her gross monthly income under $1,670 to qualify for Medicaid.
Rufino feels trapped in that catch-22. As a single mother, she worked multiple jobs in retail and design to support her family, but a tight budget prevented her from building savings. After retiring a decade ago and relying on Social Security — which currently amounts to $1,103 a month — the 72-year-old said she struggled to afford basic necessities.
To help pay her bills, Rufino took a part-time job working with foster children near her home in Salt Lake City. She said she earns a stipend of a few hundred dollars a month.
Rufino wishes she had extra money to travel in her golden years: “I want to go see the world, but I don’t have the money to do that,” she said.
She would pursue a better-paying job, but she said that would jeopardize her Medicaid benefits, meaning she would have to pay more of her health care costs out of pocket. She also lives in a subsidized housing unit and said a higher income would mean an unsustainable rent increase. These are trade-offs she cannot afford.
“Going back to work is not worth it for me in my situation,” she said. “I don’t make enough money to make it worth it.”
Retirement and economics experts told BI that there are resources for older adults looking for jobs again.
Johnston said that, for those who can’t find work, government assistance programs can help some Americans pay for essentials like groceries, housing, health care and transportation.
In August, the National Council on Aging estimated that 9 million adults age 65 and older would be eligible for SNAP benefits but were not enrolled, while many of these people were also eligible for other programs, such as Social Security and Medicare Savings . The group hypothesized that some lower-income older adults may not know they qualify.
Johnston said lower-income older Americans should get the food, health care, transportation and housing benefits they are entitled to — local senior centers and benefits counselors can help them get started, she said.
“I’m a big believer that money can’t get you out of poverty,” Johnston said.
Allison Shrivastava, an economist at the job search platform, added that older adults looking to return to work should rely on their professional networks to get an edge on open positions and job interviews. She also advised job seekers to spend time obtaining updated certifications and technology skills in their field: “It shows that you are willing to learn and willing to adapt,” Shrivastava said.
To be fair, financial needs are not the only reason retirees return to work.
Bonnie Cote, 75, returned to the workforce part-time as a substitute teacher shortly after retiring about a decade ago. She worked for the Department of Education near Washington, D.C., for decades, and also taught art at a nearby school for a while.
Cote’s income supplements her savings and $2,300 monthly Social Security checks, but she says her job keeps her active. She enjoys teaching, being social, and working with students on assignments and art projects.
Cote said she felt pressured by friends and financial advisors to leave her teaching career in her mid-60s, and came to regret it. She said she retired too early, and she is happiest in a classroom.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are,” Cote said. “You should be able to get a job.”
Are you not retired? Are you having trouble with your finances when you retire? If you are open to sharing your story with a reporter, please reach out allisonkelly@businessinsider.com.
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