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Aging & Work Facts Database

This database provides you with easy-to-access facts and statistics related to aging & work. Here you will find:

  • A sentence with a fact/statistic.
  • The full citation so you can locate the source of the statistic (e.g., article, report, etc.).
  • A short description of the study connected to the fact/statistic.
  • And, in some cases, a figure representing the facts or statistics, such as a bar graph.
  SEARCH BY TOPIC:
Age Bias and Employment Discrimination
Business Strategies & Workforce Development
Caregiving: Elder
Caregiving: Employer-sponsored benefits for
Caregiving: Other (grandchildren, spouse, dependents)
Demographics: Age Distribution, Life Expectancy
Education and Training
Educational Attainment
Employee Engagement & Job Satisfaction
Employer-sponsored benefits (see also Caregiving)
Employment Preferences
Flexible Work Options (general)
Flexible Work Options: Bridge Jobs
Flexible Work Options: Consulting, Contract Work, Self-employment
Flexible Work Options: Flexible Schedule
Flexible Work Options: Leaves of Absence
Flexible Work Options: Part-time Employment
Flexible Work Options: Phased Retirement
Flexible Work Options: Remote Work, Telecommuting, Telework
Flexible Work Options: Work Redesign
Gender
Health: Health Behaviors
Health: Health Care Costs
Health: Health Insurance
Health: Health Status
Health: Workplace Injuries
Income
Knowledge Transfer
Labor Force Participation
Marital Status
Medicare & Medicaid
Mental Health
Multi-generational Workplace
Older Workers, Advantages of
Older Workers, Costs of
Older Workers, Job Skills and Demands
Older Workers, Perceptions about
Peformance, Productivity, Absenteeism
Pensions and Retirement Accounts
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
Reasons for working
Recruitment , Retention, Tenure, Turnover
Retirement Income & Expenditures
  • According to a 2008 BLS report, Consumer Price Index (CPI) data show that the annual inflation rate for seniors has been equal to or greater than the inflation rate for all ur...  more
  • In regard to the amount of money needed to cover costs of health care, prescription drugs and health insurance in retirement, "approximately 1 in 10 workers think they will ne...  more
  • "Although the majority of Americans appear to be persuaded about the need to set aside money to prepare for retirement, [the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey] finds a sl...  more
  • According to the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey, "even though many employers are eliminating health care coverage for future retirees, 4 in 10 workers continue to expe...  more
  • According to the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey, when workers were asked about their expectations of receiving benefits from employer-provided traditional pension plan...  more
  • In a 2007 national study, 43.2% of the employers indicated that they allow their retirees access to at least some benefits. (p. 13)...  more
  • "According to analysis of the Health and Retirement Study, there was a relationship found between bridge job prevalence and socio-economic status.  Those at both ends of...  more
  • According to a 2005 AARP survey, “Workers ages 50-65 who plan to continue working after age 65 (76%) were significantly more likely than other respondents to identify the ne...  more
  • "Trip takers aged 65 and older had the highest average annual travel expenditures of any of the age groups in 2000 ($1,025)."...  more
  • "Housing, food, transportation, and health care are the largest expenditure components of retirees' budgets, together accounting for about three-quarters of the average re...  more
  • According to the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey, "almost 2 in 10 workers state they are not at all likely to need long-term care at some point in their lives (17 perce...  more
  • According to the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey, "fewer than 1 in 10 workers say they are very confident that the Social Security system will continue to provide benef...  more
  • According to a 2006 EBRI analysis, for retirees who have access to retiree health benefits from a former employer but pay the full premium, "A 65-year-old retiring in 2006 who...  more
  • A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found that "about one-half of men and 40 percent of women who retired from long-term jobs and were reem...  more
  • According to a 2006 report on sources of income for older persons, "about 89 percent of whites, 80.9 percent of blacks, and 72.4 percent of Hispanics had income from Social Se...  more
  • According to a 2006 report on sources of income for older persons, "older men were twice as likely (42.6 percent) as older women (21.7 percent) to have income from pensions an...  more
  • According to a 2008 report on sources of income for older persons, "34.8 million people age 65 and older, 96.6 percent of the older population, had income in 2006. 86.4 perce...  more
  • In a 2008 study on women's poverty status, "the poverty rate for African-American women in 1967, when they were in midlife (aged 30-44), was more than four times greater t...  more
  • According to a 2008 analysis of Consumer Bankruptcy Project data, "in 1991 only 8.2 percent of bankrupt debtors were age 55 or older. By 2007, the proportion of bankrupt debt...  more
  • According to a 2007 study of employee benefits trend, "being able to afford health care in retirement, the top concern for all employees, is far more important to females (73%...  more
  • According to a 2007 study of employee benefits trends, "Women are more concerned about outliving their retirement money -- 62% versus 45% for males." Similarly, 57% of women r...  more
  • According to a 2007 study of employee benefits trends, 40% of companies offered medical, life, and/or dental insurance to retired employees in 2006, compared to 33% in 2005 an...  more
  • Of households with at least one adult aged 65 or older, 22% of those that received Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits reported receiving wage, salary...  more
  • Of households with at least one adult aged 62-64, 46% of those that received Old Age, Survivors and Disability (OASDI) benefits reported receiving wage, salary, or self-employ...  more
  • Of households with at least one adult aged 55-61, 43% of those that received Old Age, Survivors, and Disbiliaty (OASDI) benefits reported receiving wage, salary, or self-emplo...  more
  • "Despite the potential disconnect between actual longevity rates and their retirement assets, older workers are generally quite positive about how they are doing. Both those w...  more
  • "When it comes to having enough money in retirement, aging Boomers (age 55-59) are the least confident of the bunch. About 44% are not confident they will have enough money to...  more
  • "Few of the workers surveyed for this study moved to warmer climates once they started receiving retirement benefits-an issue of concern for government officials in northern i...  more
  • "Among aging Baby Boomers (age 55-59), a significant percentage of workers have minimal savings, and 18% expect to have no access to retirement benefits (e.g. pension, 401(k),...  more
  • The percentage of persons age 50 and older who owned a home increased by 2.5% from 80.9% in 1980 to 82.9% in 2000....  more
  • While Social Security represented 100% of the income received by 13% of persons age 65 and above in 1980, it represented 100% of the income received by 17% of persons age 65...  more
  • 57.6% of persons age 50-61 in the bottom 25% of income earners owned homes in 2000. 71.5% of persons age 62-74 in the bottom 25% of income earners owned homes in 2000. 69....  more
  • Moen and her colleagues asked 'retired' individuals who worked for pay why they did so. They found that while the need 'to keep active' was the prima...  more
  • "The 2004 daily rate for a private room in a nursing home is $192 ($70, 080 annually), and for a semi-private room $169 ($61, 685 annually)." (p.6)...  more
  • According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "six in 10 respondents now believe they will not be able to retire from full time work by age 60, including 12% who say t...  more
  • According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "4 in 10 workers believe their principle source of retirement income will come from employer-sponsored pensions or 401(k) p...  more
  • According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "among retired workers who remain in the labor force, approximately one in three (35%) are very confident they have the fin...  more
  • For the average earner, retiring at age 65, Social Security replaces about 41 percent of pre-retirement earnings. (Center for Retirement Research, 2006: 8)....  more
  • According to the Social Security administration, Social Security "was 90% or more of income for 21% of aged beneficiary couples and 43% of aged nonmarried beneficiaries. Total...  more
  • According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Social Security provided 72.7% of non-earned income of those aged 65 and older in 2004.  Pensions, asse...  more
  • "For the average earner, retiring at age 62 -- a common retirement age -- Social Security today replaces 33 percent of pre-retirement earnings or 31 percent after deducting th...  more
  • "Delayed retirement and work during retirement have become more and more crucial to the income picture of those over 65, with earnings rising from a low of 17 percent in 1988...  more
  • "In 2004, employer-sponsored pension income accounted for 19 percent of total income for those 65 and over." (p.6)...  more
  • According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "among the subgroup of workers that have already retired from their main job but remain in the labor force, most have...  more
  • According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "men are more likely than women to believe they will rely on personal savings (25% vs 20%) or on employer-sponsored pension...  more
  • According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "of the retired-but-working group, only 31% currently receive Social Security benefits, while 75% have other money saved fo...  more
  • In 2003, 24%, 63% and 13% of white persons age 55 and above lived alone, with a spouse and with other persons, respectively....  more
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For a print-ready file of all statistics for this topic, click here.
Retirement Planning
Retirement Statistics
Retirement, Timing of
Social Security
Unemployment
Voluntarism
  DOWNLOAD A FACT SHEET:
The following Fact Sheets contain selected facts and statistics from the database (Adobe PDF PDF format):
bullet "Mental Health" (Sep 2007)
bullet "Bridge Jobs" (Aug 2007)
bullet "Part-time Work" (Jul 2007)
bullet "The Multi-Generational Workplace" (Jul 2007)
bullet "Phased Retirement" (Jun 2007)
bullet "Age Bias And Employment Discrimination" (Feb 2007)
bullet "Employer Sponsored Pensions" (Feb 2007)
bullet "Age and the Labor Force" (Jan 2007)
bullet "Social Security and Older Workers" (Jan 2007)
bullet "Voluntarism Among Older Adults" (Jan 2007)
bullet "Older Workers’ Preferences for Work & Employ-ment" (Oct 2006)
bullet "Elder Caregiving" (Oct 2006)


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