Boston job retirement outlook improving?

Posted on March 4, 2014

As more people look to retire, a new survey points out that the Boston retirement job outlook may be improving.

According to the survey from CareerBuilder, 58 percent of workers age 60 or older say they are currently putting off retirement; however, this is down from 61 percent in 2013 and a peak of 66 percent in 2010.

In addition, 10 percent of workers in this age group feel they’ll never be able to retire, relatively unchanged from 2013 (11 percent). Half (50 percent) say they’ll be able to retire within four years – a slight improvement from 47 percent last year.

Economic factors are the most significant roadblocks to retirement, but working late into one’s life is often a voluntary choice, the survey found. The following are the top reasons workers delay retirement:
• I can’t afford to retire financially: 79 percent
• I need the health insurance/benefits: 61 percent
• I enjoy my job: 49 percent
• I enjoy where I work: 46 percent
• I fear retirement may be boring: 27 percent

Forty-five percent said they’ll look for work post-retirement—a significant 15 point drop from 2013 (60 percent). This could be a sign mature workers are gaining more confidence in their finances as retirement nears or that better access to health insurance is lessening the need to work before reaching Medicare eligibility.

Fifty-three percent of employers plan to hire mature workers (age 50+) in 2014 – up from 48 percent last year.

A third (34 percent) of employers said they received applications from mature workers (age 50+) for entry level positions. Seventy-seven percent of employers said they’d consider hiring a mature worker for a job they are overqualified for; only 9 percent said they wouldn’t on the basis of not being able to match salary demands.