As the labor market tightens in the post-pandemic environment faced by the nation that also includes record-high inflation and punishing energy prices, many seniors who had previously retired during the pandemic find themselves asking to return to work. Companies are more than happy to open their doors once again to them.
This is according to a new column at MarketWatch, assessing the nature of seniors’ choices to come back to work in a challenging economy for workers and companies alike.
“The 72 million members of the nation’s baby boomer generation are hitting retirement age at a time when America’s corporations and small businesses need them more than ever,” the column reads. “With 11.3 million job openings across the country, employers yearn for workers who know what they are doing. As a result, companies and small businesses are trying to lure people in their 60s off pickleball courts and golf courses.”
Not only are companies eager to bring older workers back, but workers themselves might be finding that adding the routine of work can add some utility to the years they may have previously earmarked for retirement, the column says.
“The generation that first entered the workforce in 1962 has typically seemed reluctant to leave it,” it reads. “Lately, some of its members are finding ways to have working retirements. They are being driven by the idea that working longer and easing into retirement can help people live longer and healthier lives.”
Not only are older workers themselves warming up to the potential benefits of working in later life, but the companies are also beginning to see additional benefits that a pandemic of more necessary worker flexibility can bring when it’s applied to older employees, the column says.
“[Companies are] starting to see how some of these age-inclusive strategies are going to get them back on their feet [after a rocky time for business during the pandemic],” says University of Iowa College of Public Health professor Brian Kaskie to MarketWatch.
In terms of application to the reverse mortgage industry, borrowers who have a steady income stream beyond something like Social Security will likely find stability and flexibility to make partial payments, according to Dan Hultquist, national director of reverse sales training at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.
“I like to discuss the option of maybe making optional payments,” he said during a virtual event hosted by RMD. “Usually when I find out that a client is still working, it becomes a flexible payment. They’re making a [regimented forward mortgage] payment right now, and with a reverse they will have a flexible payment. Sometimes there are advantages to making payments, it depends on their long-term goals and what else they could do with that money.”
Read the column at MarketWatch. Watch the full HW Media reverse mortgage event online.
