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Why more retirement-age Americans keep working

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When it came time for Diane Wetherington to consider retirement, reality quickly set in.

The 72-year-old debated devoting her time to crafting and doting over her grandkids and even gave full-time retirement a try. But she soon realized her Social Security checks, which were smaller than her peers’ due to time she spent out of the workforce while raising children, wouldn’t be enough to cover travel or rising insurance costs on top of basic needs.

Now, the Central Florida resident works part time as a remote contracting agent in local government. While she sometimes has to miss out on plans with fully retired friends, she said, continuing to work has kept her budget sound and her mind active.

“It’s just getting very hard to make ends meet,” Wetherington said. “The way the world is right now, everything’s going up, up, up.”

Wetherington is part of a growing body of Americans staying in the workforce past 65, once a traditional marker for retirement. This trend has buoyed the national labor market after years defined by pandemic-induced worker shortages and high quitting rates. It’s also changed the financial outlook for those who remain employed in some capacity, whether for personal satisfaction or monetary need.

This trend should be more apparent than ever in 2025, when more Americans are expected to turn 65 than in any past year, according to a widely read study from the Alliance for Lifetime Income. It dubbed a multiyear period in the late 2020s as the “Peak 65 zone.”

The number of employed Americans 65 and older ballooned more than 33% between 2015 and 2024, according to a CNBC analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By comparison, the labor force for all workers 16 or older has increased less than 9% during the same time period.

That growth has meant workers ages 65 and older accounted for 7% of the total workforce in 2024. That share is up from around 5.7% a decade ago.

“It’s really hard for many employers in many sectors to fill key workforce needs right now,” said Jim Malatras, strategy chief at FedCap, a nonprofit that helps train and place people in jobs. Tapping this age group “can help build key capacity where it’s desperately needed.”

An ‘anchor’ for retirement

Longer life spans have pushed a growing chorus of voices to call for the age of retirement to move back even further, especially as financial uncertainties swirl around Social Security. BlackRock Chair Larry Fink, for instance, said in an annual letter that it’s “a bit crazy” that the expectation of retiring at 65 “originates from the time of the Ottoman Empire.”

Yet there are vastly different reasons and experiences for people of retirement age to continue working in some capacity, said Teresa Ghilarducci, director of The New School’s Retirement Equity Lab.

Some do retire, and some continue to work in jobs that they love out of passion alone. But she said about two-thirds of those still working do it “because they have to.” They can be in jobs with high physical or mental requirements, she said, but they see few alternatives, given that their Social Security checks can’t sustain them.

“I call it the tale of two retirements,” Ghilarducci said.

‘Vintage cars’

Employers of all kinds have tried to win and retain this growing base of talent.

Booking.com parent Booking Holdings offers 10 days off annually for so-called grandparent leave, which is separate from time offered to new parents and other paid days off. Grocery store chain Wegmans has a section of its part-time jobs page specifically targeted to seniors, advertising the opportunity to stay active and earn income during retirement.

Retirement-age workers can be seen working in gift shops or greeting restaurant guests for Xanterra, a travel company that owns properties in and around national parks. The company has a program called Helping Hands, which allows Xanterra to staff up during the peak tourist season by offering gigs that typically last a month and a half with 30-hour workweeks.

“The retirement community, or that older workforce, is really an integral part of our overall workforce planning strategy,” said Shannon Dierenbach, Xanterra’s human resources chief. “They certainly bring a level of expertise, wisdom, life skills, perspective that really enhances the overall experience.”

Pedestrians walk past a “hiring now” sign posted outside Wegmans in New York City. 

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Despite these anecdotes, advocates say a pervasive culture of ageism has continued to hurt these Americans in the workforce. “They’re like vintage cars to us,” said FedCap’s Malatras. “They’re built to last, they’re full of value, but they’re treated often like high-mileage Pintos, and they don’t really have an opportunity to serve anymore.”

Employers hoping to better advertise to this community should look at job descriptions and pictures on their jobs pages to ensure there aren’t any subtle signs they favor younger applicants, according to Heather Tinsley-Fix, senior advisor for employer engagement at AARP. She often encourages employers looking for older workers to sign AARP’s pledge, in which businesses commit to measures supporting age equality.

Removing college degree requirements can also help gain the attention of this pool, she said, given that a smaller share completed higher education compared with younger generations. Working from home is a key component of flexibility that these older workers may need, Tinsley-Fix said.

Part of Tinsley-Fix’s argument for employers is the impending “tsunami” of retirements expected within the next decade. If companies don’t tap into groups they previously overlooked, she warned, they’ll struggle to stay at full staffing, as not enough people enter the workforce each year to replace those who left.

Her pitch isn’t all doom-and-gloom, however. Tinsley-Fix said there’s a silver lining: These workers tend to excel at soft skills and can provide mentorship to younger staffers. At Xanterra’s sites, for example, retirement-age workers interact particularly well with customers and stay calm under pressure, Dierenbach said.

“People talk about all kinds of spillover dividends from having older workers on their teams,” Tinsley-Fix said. “They really benefit from having those folks.”

‘The best thing that ever happened to me’

Those who remain employed do so for a variety of reasons. Multiple workers from this age group told CNBC that no matter the initial rationale — whether financial needs or personal preference — that got them to stay or return to the workforce, they’ve benefited physically and mentally.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” said Shari Nelson, who began working for nonprofit Vantage Aging through its government-supported job placement program and was hired to stay on after completing it.

The Ohio resident, who works part-time, said the paycheck allows her the financial security to be the kind of grandmother past generations in her family have been. Nelson’s role was previously full-time, but Vantage broke it up into two positions with fewer hours to better accommodate older workers.

Nonprofits were the most popular industry for workers in this age bracket at the end of 2024, with more than 1 out of every 12 in the sector, according to data from payroll platform Gusto. Among the small businesses using Gusto, the firm found the share of workers 65 or older has surged more than 50% since January 2019.

Government is another popular area, according to Gusto. That’s where Florida resident Anne Sallee, who was once a public official, found herself after she decided a full retirement wasn’t for her.

Sallee, who had a long career as a paralegal and now works as an economic development coordinator, said the return to in-person office work was a “shock” after more than a decade away. However, she said the personal benefits of having deadlines and a routine, as well as a passion for the role, keep her coming back.

“I don’t enjoy not having things I have to do,” Sallee said. “I never envisioned the ‘sit on the beach with your feet up and a cocktail’ kind of lifestyle.”

Still, Sallee said she’s taken some liberties that she may not have early in her career or when starting a new position. For instance, the 68-year-old avoids working overtime and takes a three-week vacation annually.

“If that ever becomes a problem,” she said of her yearly stretch of time off, “the vacation will take priority.”

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Inflation rate slipped to 2.1% in April, lower than expected, Fed’s preferred gauge shows

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Inflation rate slipped to 2.1% in April, lower than expected, Fed’s preferred gauge shows

Inflation barely budged in April as tariffs President Donald Trump implemented in the early part of the month had yet to show up in consumer prices, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s key inflation measure, increased just 0.1% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.1%. The monthly reading was in line with the Dow Jones consensus forecast while the annual level was 0.1 percentage point lower.

Excluding food and energy, the core reading that tends to get even greater focus from Fed policymakers showed readings of 0.1% and 2.5%, against respective estimates of 0.1% and 2.6%.

Consumer spending, though, slowed sharply for the month, posting just a 0.2% increase, in line with the consensus but slower than the 0.7% rate in March. A more cautious consumer mood also was reflected in the personal savings rate, which jumped to 4.9%, up from 0.6 percentage point in March to the highest level in nearly a year.

Personal income surged 0.8%, a slight increase from the prior month but well ahead of the forecast for 0.3%.

Markets showed little reaction to the news, with stock futures continuing to point lower and Treasury yields mixed.

People shop at a grocery store in Brooklyn on May 13, 2025 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Trump has been pushing the Fed to lower its key interest rate as inflation has continued to gravitate back to the central bank’s 2% target. However, policymakers have been hesitant to move as they await the longer-term impacts of the president’s trade policy.

On Thursday, Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell held their first face-to-face meeting since the president started his second term. However, a Fed statement indicated the future path of monetary policy was not discussed and stressed that decisions would be made free of political considerations.

Trump slapped across-the-board 10% duties on all U.S. imports, part of an effort to even out a trading landscape in which the U.S. ran a record $140.5 billion deficit in March. In addition to the general tariffs, Trump launched selective reciprocal tariffs much higher than the 10% general charge.

Since then, though, Trump has backed off the more severe tariffs in favor of a 90-day negotiating period with the affected countries. Earlier this week, an international court struck down the tariffs, saying Trump exceeded his authority and didn’t prove that national security was threatened by the trade issues.

Then in the latest installment of the drama, an appeals court allowed a White House effort for a temporary stay of the order from the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Economists worry that tariffs could spark another round of inflation, though the historical record shows that their impact is often minimal.

At their policy meeting earlier this month, Fed officials also expressed worry about potential tariff inflation, particularly at a time when concerns are rising about the labor market. Higher prices and slower economic growth can yield stagflation, a phenomenon the U.S. hasn’t seen since the early 1980s.

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German inflation May 2025

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19 May 2025, Berlin: Apricots are sold at a greengrocer for 7.98 euros per kilogram. Grapes and papaya are also on offer.

Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images

Germany’s annual inflation hit 2.1% in May approaching the European Central Bank’s 2% target but coming in slightly hotter than analyst estimates, preliminary data from statistics office Destatis showed Friday.

The print compares with a 2.2% reading in April and with a Reuters projection of 2%.

The print is harmonized across the euro zone for comparability.

So-called core inflation, which strips out more volatile food and energy prices, dipped slightly from April’s 2.8% to 2.9% in May. The closely watched services print meanwhile eased sharply, coming in at 3.4% compared to 3.9% in the previous month.

Energy prices fell markedly for the second month in a row, tumbling by 4.6% in May.

Germany’s consumer price index has been closing in on the European Central Bank’s 2% target over recent months, in a positive signal amid ongoing uncertainty about the economic outlook for Europe’s largest economy.

Domestic and global issues have mired expectations for Germany’s financial future.

One the one hand, U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs could damage economic growth, given Germany’s status as an export-reliant country, though the potential impact of such duties on inflation remains unclear. But frequent policy shifts and developments have been muddying the picture.

On the other hand, Germany’s newly minted government is starting to get to work and has made the economy a top priority. Questions linger about when and to what extent the new Berlin administration’s policy plans might be realized.

The ECB is set to make its next interest rate decision on June 5, with traders last pricing in an over 96% chance of a quarter point interest rate reduction, according to LSEG data. Back in April, the central bank had cut its deposit facility rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%.

This is a breaking news story, please check back for updates.

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