The MMI Report on Retirees and Working

Let's move on

Another rant: You have to read the report, but you don't have to like it. That's the MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) report on retirees and the gap between wanting to work and actually finding work. The implications of the report (not-so-charmingly titled Buddy Can You Spare a Job?) are of a current and worsening Depression-style gap between the 75% of those aged 55-70 who, perhaps unrealistically, need and expect to keep working and the 35% of them who have jobs. Doomsayers in the report assert that this gap is going to widen between now and 2016, and they attempt to show how the problem will worsen as boomers age into their 60s and beyond.

Perhaps triggered by the MMI report, the New York Times today ran a long feature story on age 65+ job seekers, noting that there are 6.6 million of them in the job market today compared to 4.1 million in 2001. Ironically, the NYT count of the number of age 65+ job seekers who can't find work is half a million, which sounds like a big number unless you compare it to the 15.1 million Americans out of work overall.

Given that the economy has clearly changed since 2001, let's get a few things out on the table:

If we are able, we all need to work at something—period: Studies show that doing some type of paid work (apparently it doesn't matter how much, self-employed, or whatever) correlates with staying healthy. We have to get over the idea that there is a “retirement” date at which all full-time work ends, and then it's golf and lunch dates. If the current “work gap” finishes off that concept for good, then in my view, it will be for the best.

Some organizations (more are needed) want to help older workers refresh their skills: RetirementJobs.com, RetiredBrains.com, AARP, and many other groups provide resources to help older workers boost skills and find jobs.

The MMI report misses the opportunity: The report spells out the self-defeating issues that retirees bring to the traditional job application process (I won't belabor them), but let's redirect the report's message to boomers into a positive.

Small businesses employ half of the workers in the United States—or 44% of the U.S. private payroll. That's firms with fewer than 20 people employing 21.6 million people. So we're talking about all of the shops around the corner, salons, spas, small service businesses, small law offices, accounting firms, medical practices, and local tech services firms. And let's observe that personal service, including hands-on computer and network help, is by definition, local.

Volunteering and learning—not necessarily a traditional job—pave the road to work: The Aging in Place Technology Watch Web site does not target recent retirees who are seeking work, but I hear from them nonetheless, especially those considering starting a small tech services firm to help seniors. So add an assignment to these startups: How about teaching retirees their missing computer skills, then growing a personal network among local small businesses (<20 people) that need many types of help day-to-day (including tech support)? First place these people into volunteer positions, then part-time and temporary work assignments. For long-time telecom and IT people, that's a good start at mitigating the risk of the dire MMI report landscape for themselves and others.

The health care industry is a bright spot on the industry horizon: But it's not just insurance-reimbursed medical care, it's wellness, alternative medicine, vitamin sales, medical equipment, physical therapy, exercise classes and equipment, and the lengthy supply chain of medical centers, etc. We should be imagining ways to capitalize on this boom and to train the not-yet-retired and the recently retired to participate—not necessarily as nurses or doctors, but as workers filling gaps here and completing tasks there to keep everyone who is able working for pay—and helping others.

More thoughts welcome.

By Laurie Orlov
Aging in Place Technology Watch Blog

[Originally posted October 20, 2009, at Laurie's Aging in Place Technology Watch Web site.]