SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – When retirement day comes, some people are ready to never step foot in the office again, but others find they like the socialization and consistency work gives them, even just for a few hours a day.
National Older Workers Employment Week aims to support and celebrate those who choose to work after retirement.
“A lot of these people are looking for part-time work, for example, maybe 15 or 20 hours, or 10 hours a week to augment their income,” Greg Marchildon of AARP said.
He says some people look to come back to or even stay in the workforce, and National Older Workers Employment Week encourages people do to so.
“What AARP is trying to do is encourage people to actually look at the value that they would bring to the workplace,” said Marchildon.
Marchildon says those over 65 years old are still eager to work, even if it’s not a full-time job.
“Many of them, very skilled, who want to continue to work who still feel vibrant, still feel effective, still understand their trade or still understand their value, and it’s become difficult for them to try to find places that will employ them,” he said.
Marchildon says people are taking advantage of the flexibility after they retire to try new opportunities.
“Some of them sort of reimagine what work will be like some of them have decided like well I always wanted to start a small business, or I always wanted to see if I could do something with kids or.. then they work in a completely different field,” he said.
He says older people also might choose to work to be around other people.
“Because isolation is empirically bad for your health and bad for your mental health, so for many people continuing to work for a little bit into their retirement years allows them to stay engaged,” Marchildon said.
Judy Emerson of Associates for Training and Development says the nonprofit aims to encourage older people to continue working if they’d like to. The non-profit has a senior community service employment program that enrolls qualified job seekers in part-time, paid training positions at public agencies or non-profit organizations in their local communities.
“Our workplace is changing. We don’t have enough workers and that’s an issue in VT as well as elsewhere. And so, I think our employers are a little bit behind the game that they need to, we need to throw off this idea that people over a certain age are a burden to society,” Emerson said.
The number of participants has fluctuated since COVID-19. But Emerson says roughly 500-600 people are currently in the program. The purpose is to offer a “stepping stone” back into the workforce. Positions are not intended to be permanent, and all assignments are temporary.