{"id":73918,"date":"2016-04-10T02:23:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T06:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=73918"},"modified":"2025-01-17T22:54:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T03:54:25","slug":"leaving-workforce-continues-years-retiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/04\/10\/leaving-workforce-continues-years-retiring\/","title":{"rendered":"For some, leaving workforce continues years after retiring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Photo<\/a>
(Photo from Flickr\/Pug50<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BOULDER, Colo. \u2013 The transition from employment to retirement used to be marked by a date on a calendar, along with some sheet cake, and a maybe a gold watch. Those days are long gone for most workers in the United States.<\/p>\n

Today, the journey toward complete withdrawal from the labor force can last many years. Economists refer to the transition period as \u201cbridge employment.\u201d As more and more Americans either choose, or are forced, into bridge employment, the expectation of what retirement actually means is rapidly changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t even use the word \u2018retirement\u2019 any more. It obscures more than it enlightens,\u201d says Boston College economist Joseph Quinn.<\/p>\n

Quinn\u2019s research has shown that for many seniors today, retirement is not a one-time event, but rather a process. He attributes it to a changing economic picture that encourages more seniors to choose work over leisure.<\/p>\n

Bridge jobs, Quinn says, \u201ctend to be lower pay and less likely to have pension and health benefits, but since many people are taking these jobs voluntarily, they obviously provide some advantages \u2013 most likely flexible hours, since more than half of the bridge jobs are part-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to data from the University of Michigan\u2019s Health and Retirement Study, roughly 6 out of 10 men and women of retirement age don\u2019t plan to leave the labor force when they leave their full-time career jobs.<\/p>\n

Factors leading to the appeal of bridge jobs include longer life expectancies and less physically demanding work, according to Quinn. His data also suggest the propensity to seek out bridge employment is highest at both ends of the wage spectrum, with blue-collar workers acting out of financial necessity, while wealthier workers think of it more as a lifestyle choice.<\/p>\n

Laura Thompson drove a bus for 25 years in Detroit before retiring 16 years ago. \u201cFor a while I was completely retired,\u201d says Thompson. \u201cBut eventually, I just felt like I still had it in me to do something, plus the extra income is nice too.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days Thompson keeps busy by working part time as a chef at a local homeless shelter. She says the decision was less about necessity, and more about a desire to help out. Still, she says it isn\u2019t uncommon for retired bus drivers to keep working.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pensions have already been cut by the city,\u201d Thompson says, \u201cI mean, I could probably scrape by without working, but I don’t want to do that, not if I can help it.<\/p>\n

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\u201d<\/p>\n

A somewhat open question is whether bridge jobs are truly bridges to retirement or just another job change, perhaps one of many, in a seemingly unending working career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be too Pollyannaish about bridge jobs because part of this is likely a reaction to the erosion of retirement security in the U.S.,\u201d says Monique Morrissey, an economist with Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank with ties to organized labor.<\/p>\n

Morrissey says older Americans are facing a gradual erosion of retirement benefits. Specifically, she points to the transition to 401(k)s over defined-benefit pensions, as well as the eventual increase in the retirement age up to 67, a move she says amounts to an \u201cacross-the-board cut in benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that bridge jobs occupy an increasing portion of the labor force suggests that wage income is an increasingly important part of retirement planning for many seniors. The traditional model of a retirement income is a \u201cthree-legged stool,\u201d composed of Social Security, pensions and savings. However an analysis of census data by the Social Security Administration found that since the mid-1980s, earnings as percentage of income has more than doubled and is still rising (for people 65 and older).<\/p>\n

Gloria Adamson, 81, says she never planned to be working this late in life.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI simply have to work,\u201d she says. \u201cRetirement isn\u2019t even in the picture, to tell you the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

To cover her bills, Adamson started working as an adjunct professor in the Colorado community college system 13 years ago. According to a 2014 congressional report, most adjuncts receive no benefits, and often earn a fraction of what tenure-track faculty make. Therefore, Adamson says she was never able to build up much savings, or make adequate contributions to her pension.<\/p>\n

For the past year she has worked full-time teaching writing and rhetoric to freshmen at the University of Colorado in Boulder, a job with better pay and benefits than what she got at the community college.<\/p>\n

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She teaches three classes in addition to spending 10 hours a week tutoring students at the campus writing center.<\/p>\n

Still, Adamson says doesn\u2019t feel cheated out of her retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI leaned a trick some time ago, that if I make my work important enough to me, I won\u2019t have a lot of time to do other things,\u201d she says, with a slight smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figure by the time I\u2019m 100 I will be in better shape financially. I might think about retiring then.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOULDER, Colo. \u2013 The transition from employment to retirement used to be marked by a date on a calendar, along …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":73919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1080],"class_list":["post-73918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","tag-ap","mauthors-adam-allington","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285098,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73918\/revisions\/285098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}