Baby boomers have challenged notions of middle age -- now they're redefining traditional retirement, too. Or should we say, postponing it entirely. The percentage of Americans over 65 who are still in the workforce is at a record high, according to the Labor Department. Separately, a recent Gallup survey found the average working American expects to retire at age 67 -- up from age 60 in the mid-1990s. Roughly one in five workers now say they'll retire after 65 -– up from about one in eight in 1995. What's going on? Recent reports suggest the economic downturn is largely to blame for keeping post 50s in their nine-to-five schedules: Some 40 percent of Americans age 50 and older have chosen delay their retirement in the wake of the Great Recession, according to a study released this month by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR). It was the first study to correlate real data on household wealth just before and after the downturn with the retirement plans of a nationally representative sample of Americans age 50 and older. "The greater the loss, the more likely people were to delay their retirement," said ISR economist Brooke Helppie McFall in a press release. BLOG POSTS
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