SEATTLE — Roughly one in seven Washington state residents age 65 or older are still employed — a statistic that reflects a national trend that has seen more Americans putting their retirement on hold.
The economy is just one of the factors keeping people in the office instead of on the golf course. Some want to work longer and for others, retirement is a dream they can’t afford right now, The Seattle Times reported.
The percentage of senior citizens working has nearly doubled in U.S. in the past two decades and that trend is expected to accelerate as more baby boomers approach retirement age.
In Washington, workers 55 and older accounted for less than 10 percent of the work force in 1990, but made up more than 20 percent by the end of 2010.
The reasons people work past 65 are varied: Some love their work. Some hesitate to walk away from the security of a paycheck or health coverage. And some stay because the troubled economy of the past few years pulled the rug out from under them.
“Unless I win one heck of a big lottery, I’d like to keep doing this,” said Randy McDougall, 65, taking a break from directing big trucks up the loading ramps at the Washington State Convention Center, a part-time job he’s had since early 2010.
For 17 years, McDougall worked at a small company that specialized in aerial photography. The firm’s most dependable customers, he said, were companies doing large-scale developments in commercial or residential real estate.
“When the bottom fell out of real estate, it hit us hard,” said McDougall, who was laid off in 2008.
McDougall likes the activity at the convention center, as well as the teamwork and the positive energy that comes with helping transform a vast empty space into the venue for a lively convention or trade show drawing tens of thousands of people.
He’s also taking classes to expand his computer skills, which he hopes will add to his part-time job opportunities.
McDougall and his wife are still paying on a mortgage and car loan and aren’t sure when retirement will make sense for them.
Older workers have a lower unemployment rate than the overall work force, but when they do lose jobs, they take longer to get new ones.
November data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the national unemployment rate for 65-and-older workers at 6.7 percent, below the overall mark of 8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted. But senior citizens out of work took an average of 62.7 weeks to find a new job, compared with the overall average of 41.1 weeks.
At West Coast Printing on Rainier Avenue South, Ted Tomita, 67, isn’t retiring, but has cut back his working hours to between 55 and 60 a week. That’s down from 75 to 80 hours earlier in his career.
Tomita and his younger brother took over the business their father and uncle started in 1930. They’ve printed everything from menus to newsletters to stationery to books — even fortunes for fortune cookies.
“I’ve been doing this so long, it’s like breathing,” Tomita said.
He has a couple of younger employees who can help with heavy lifting, but otherwise he can still do just about anything in the shop. Although he’s never had a specific retirement age in mind, he has tried to save money for when that day comes.
“I wish I had saved more,” he said.
These days, money is tight. Not only has the recession cut the amount his customers have to spend, but many organizations now do their own small-job printing.
“We’ve been hit pretty hard,” Tomita said. “Quite a few print shops have gone under.”
Dale Burdett, 78, of Edmonds. He’s at work by 7 a.m. every weekday, stocking the dairy section at Petosa’s Family Grocer, where he also runs a check stand at busy times.
He’s been at the store 15 years, and enjoys being active, useful and connecting with customers. “I’ve seen too many people retire and then go home and kind of fade away.”
Working doesn’t bother Burdett. When he was 12, growing up in Edmonds, he and his two brothers popped popcorn to sell at the ferry dock for 10 cents a bag. As teens, they helped clean up a cafe their mother ran.
Their father worked until 80 as a salesman for Darigold, but his wife retired 20 years ago from work in grocery and department stores.
“This job has really helped keep us above water,” Burdett said. And there’s another benefit: “My doctor said I look better now than I did three or four years ago.”
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