Amaturo Sonoma Media Group

The rise in unretirement

Events

Date Posted - December 9, 2025
In Feature Article

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Retirement, they say, is a time for personal growth. What many are finding, however, is that their personal growth turns out to be a new job.

With people living longer and inflation still lightening pocketbooks, many U.S. residents in their 60s and 70s are taking on full- or part-time jobs to make ends meet. Personal finance experts have even coined a term for it: Unretiring.

In fact, one in eight retirees was predicted to have returned to work in 2025, according to employment consulting website resumebuilders.com. Their primary motivation? Financial reasons. Many of those required remote work opportunities, “especially if they face mobility challenges, disabilities or caregiving responsibilities,” notes Resume Builder’s Chief Career Advisor Stacie Haller.

Unretiring isn’t new—a certain number of retirees consider returning to the workplace in any given year, for a variety of reasons. According to resumebuilder, an average of 18% of retirees returned to work in years prior to 2020. But the numbers have jumped. Following the mass of retirements during the pandemic—referred to as the Great Resignation, when many decided life was too short to be Johnny and Jane Lunchpails their whole lives—many seniors discovered life wasn’t as short as they thought. Facing a potential 20 or more years left (according to average U.S. life expectancy at nearly 79) and steep cost-of-living increases, around a quarter of retirees began brushing up their resumes the past two years—with 29% and 22% returning to work in 2023 and 2024, respectively. While Social Security payments help, they’re only intended to cover about 40% of pre-retirement income.

Unretiring is also unfazed by gender-equity concerns, being most common in single people and women, according to Angela Rowe, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislators.

While unretiring out of financial necessity shows a gaping hole in the American safety net, not all seniors consider rejoining the workforce as a negative, with many saying they enjoy the social aspect of the workplace or find meaning in staying active and engaged in their golden years. As Fred Rogers observed many years ago on his 1970s children’s show: “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”

Now 50 years later, those kids in his audience are realizing what he meant.