FLORIDA — Working past retirement age has never been the American dream. And while many states still have residents over 65 in jobs, more and more Floridians are leaving the job market, a new study shows.
Population growth, changes to Social Security and rising living costs are forcing many Americans to postpone retirement, according to financial website LendingTree.
The researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau between March 2022 and April 2024, looking for the states with the highest share of people age 65 and older who are still employed. The full study and its methodology can be found here..
Florida came in 40th on the list, the researchers found. According to the study, 18.3 percent of the state’s retirement-age residents are still employed, a decrease of 15.7 percent from 2022.
As of March 2022, approximately 21.7 percent of residents aged 65 and over in the Commonwealth were employed.
The ten states with the highest proportion of older people in the workforce are:
- New Jersey: 33.8%
- Delaware: 27.2%
- Indiana: 23.0%
- Montana: 24.2%
- Connecticut: 30.3%
- Nevada: 25.7%
- Maryland: 31.2%
- Arkansas: 24.8%
- North Dakota: 32.3%
- Louisiana: 22.5%
Nationwide, 22 percent of U.S. citizens over the age of 65 are still employed. One in four (24.2 percent) is self-employed, about half (50.5 percent) are employed by private companies and 10.3 percent are employed by the government, the study says.
The share of U.S. adults who reported being retired fell from 16.8 percent in March 2022 to 16.2 percent in March 2024. Overall, the share of retirees fell in 30 states, led by New Jersey (23 percent), North Dakota (22.9 percent) and Connecticut (19.9 percent).
In addition to demographic changes, the increase in the number of workers of retirement age in states such as New Jersey also has financial reasons, the researchers suspect.
“These increases could be a troubling sign that more and more older Americans need additional income in their so-called golden years,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
“Inflation could severely affect these people’s assumptions about how they will live in retirement,” Schulz added.
Other factors – such as better health care, higher levels of education and a flexible work environment – have also contributed to older Americans continuing to work, the researchers say.
