Pros, cons of working in retirement

Working in retirement to supplement too little savings may not be the best backup plan for a lot of older Americans. But with the right preparation you may be able to keep yourself from having to create a backup plan for the backup plan.

At least one in four older Americans won't be able to work in retirement for one reason or another — a health problem, an accident or other unforeseen event — and many of those may have been planning to remain employed either out of want or need or both.

There is also a question as to how ready employers will be to hire and retain older workers.

Recent studies provide some reason for optimism and some reason for caution on the issue.

According to a recent Boston College Center for Retirement Research study, the bulk of older Americans should be healthy enough to work full time until their mid-60s. The health of older workers is at least as good today as it was 40 years ago, and jobs are less physically demanding than in the past. That, the study says, bodes well for Americans working longer.

By the way, older workers who want to know whether they'll be among those who can keep working should check out their body-mass index. Apparently there's a strong correlation between being overweight and taking Social Security early, at age 62, according to a recent University of Michigan Retirement Research Center study. That study is available online at www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu (search for "body mass retirement").

On the other hand, more than one in four U.S. businesses has failed to plan to hire or retain older workers, according to a recent Boston College Center on Aging & Work/Workplace Flexibility study.

The counterbalance to that? Firms will likely become more age-friendly places to work over time as the labor shortage becomes a reality instead of just a prediction.

"Age bias among employers will diminish every year that more and more boomers get older, which is something they can't stop happening," Matt Thornhill of the Boomer Project said in an e-mail. "That's because there aren't enough Gen Xers to step into the shoes of the departing boomers, so other boomers can fill those roles."

Meanwhile, older Americans who want to work part- time or as a temporary employee, should be able to find plenty of work.

"Employers are much more often seeking older workers for these kinds of jobs for all sorts of reasons, but primarily because they usually don't have to pay benefits," said Arthur Koff of RetiredBrains.com. "Getting a full-time job is much more difficult."

Easy or not, Koff agreed many older Americans will have to supplement their retirement income with money from a job of one sort or another.