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Economy is forcing some older people into retirement, The Wall Street Journal reports 2009-12-10 Many older people are facing retirement whether they're ready or not, The Wall Street Journal said this week. The article cites a Wellesley College study estimating that 378,000 older workers are being shunted into retirement by the slack labor market. And many of those workers, say the economists who performed the study, have lower incomes and are less likely to have retirement savings. The end result is that forced retirement leads to "lower [retirement] income and a higher risk of poverty," economist Courtney Coile is quoted as saying. Unemployment among older workers is outpacing joblessness on the whole, the Journal notes. According to Labor Department data, the total number of unemployed workers aged 55 to 64 has tripled since the start of the recession in late 2007; the overall jobless figure doubled during that time. And unemployment among that 55- to 64-year-old age group increased between October and November, even as the overall unemployment rate fell slightly. The older Americans interviewed by the Journal indicated that they plan to rely heavily on Social Security. But, for many, this cash source may be inadequate, leading people to sell their life insurance with life settlements or raise cash through reverse mortgages.  |
