Over 20 percent of individuals aged 50 and older who left their job in 2021 said they had retired earlier than planned because of the pandemic. Image: Rido/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe GAO has said that the employment picture for older workers—as well as their financial stability—are now about the same as before the COVID-19 pandemic, although they experienced hardship along the way.
The unemployment rate for those aged 55–64 who want to work spiked early in the pandemic, peaking at 12.6 percent in April 2020, but had returned to its pre-pandemic level of 2.2 percent by April 2023, a report says. “Further, older workers were more likely to report that they were unemployed because they had lost their job or been laid off, and they were also more likely to have exited the labor force by retiring,” it says.
It cited a survey finding that 21 percent of individuals aged 50 and older who left their job in 2021 said they had retired earlier than planned because of the pandemic.
Younger workers in contrast were more likely to have become unemployed because a temporary job had ended or because they left a job voluntarily, it said. In both cases, more highly educated workers remained employed at higher levels than those with less education.
“During the pandemic, older workers’ personal finances generally remained relatively steady,” it said, for reasons including an increase in filing for Social Security benefits immediately on retirement, rather than waiting until “full” retirement age—between 65 and 67, depending on year of birth—when there is no reduction in benefits for taking them earlier. That pattern has since reversed itself, GAO noted.
Also, the “prevalence of households aged 55 or over who had retirement accounts, and the value of those accounts, held relatively steady.”
GAO added that experts in the field it contacted regarding best steps to boost older workers’ employability included that the Department of Labor “identify and report on the legal, regulatory, logistical, or other barriers to the employment of older workers” and that it “offer targeted support, such as improving the agency’s existing job-search assistance programs for older job seekers.”
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