While employment rates have fallen among most age groups, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Washington Post notes that the latest figures indicate more people over the age of 55 are working than ever before.
One major cause of this change is growing fear among older Americans that they will be financially unable to sustain retirement. Without steady wages, retirees must rely on savings and investments, and fewer are confident that those resources will be sufficient to pay for food, healthcare and other expenses.
According to the news source, another cause is a shift toward the use of 401(k) retirement plans rather than company pensions, encouraging Americans as old as 75 to continue working or resume work if they had previously stopped. There are also a growing number of jobs that do not require physical stamina and condition older workers do not posses. Longer lifespans play a part as well, since they mean retiring at the same age requires retirement finances to last longer.
Older workers may have greater need of employee benefits, such as health insurance coverage. The nature of their needs may also be different, focusing more on long-term care rather than coverage for accidents, given that they are less likely to be in physically strenuous jobs to begin with and more likely to suffer from chronic or ongoing conditions.
