Recession Reality: Postponing Retirement

Workplace Buzz on September 3, 2009 3:45 PM

Atlanta hospital nurse Barbara Petrucci is 58 and had expected to retire or cut back to part time soon.

But stock market declines in the recession took such a hit on her savings that Petrucci now plans to stay on the job indefinitely.

“Retirement is kind of an elusive dream at this point,” Petrucci told The New York Times.

Her retired husband, Ned, 61, has been interviewing for jobs, so far with no success. “We tease at work about someday having to go around at the hospital with our walkers,” she says.

Elsewhere in the world, people are retiring as planned thanks to intact state and corporate pensions.

But here, financial security in old age rests increasingly on private savings, which nosedived in the last year. Prospective retirees are now clinging to jobs.

As a result, companies are not only reluctant to create new jobs, but have fewer job openings to fill from attrition. For the 14 million Americans looking for work — a number expected to rise — this lack of turnover has made a tough job market even tougher.

Tell us your story? Have you postponed your retirement or, if you plan to, how are you making it work?

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