USA Today (01/24/12) Janice Lloyd

Fueled by an uncertain economy, improved health in older life, and an understanding that staying engaged leads to a better sense of well-being, Baby Boomers are increasingly working past conventional retirement age. For 2011, the labor participation rate for people age 65 years and older was 17.9%, compared with 10.8% in 1985. For people 75 years and older, the rate jumped from 4.3% in 1990 to 7.5% in 2011.

Richard Johnson, senior fellow and director of the program on retirement policy at the Urban Institute, notes that many older people in the work force have high levels of education. “It used to be older workers were much less educated than younger workers,” Johnson says. “That’s not the case now. Older workers do not face the same problems in terms of being outdated as they used to.”