Employers seeing opportunity as Boomers go from retirement to ‘unretirement’

Lured by the remote and flexible work capabilities created during the pandemic, at least some Baby Boomers who retired early are now interested in rejoining the workforce. In July, job search site, Joblist, released its U.S. Job Market Report for the second quarter of 2022. It showed increasing numbers of retirees “unretiring,” giving employers struggling to fill positions a new pool of potential employees to tap if they’re willing to bring on older workers.

Why the return

The Joblist report notes that the first year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic saw some 2.4 million more Americans retire than were expected. Now, however, unretirements are on the rise.

Joblist asked more than 500 retired jobseekers why they wanted to reenter the workforce and found that money was hardly the only motivator. Instead, the survey found that 60% said they wanted to return to work because they were “looking for something to do.”

A smaller number cited financial concerns, with 27% of the respondents saying they needed the money, and 21% mentioned concerns about inflation.

The survey found that 52% of the retired jobseekers were “happy” about the prospect of going back to work, and 42% said they were “excited.” But some had qualms about returning to a job, with 20% saying they were “nervous,” 5% saying they were “stressed,” and 4% saying they were “frustrated.”

What returning retirees want