While a good deal of Mainers are “unretiring,” or rejoining the workforce after at least one retirement, the pace has slowed since the pandemic.
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In the United States, the percentage of retired workers returning to work was 2.7% in November 2023, according to data compiled for Mainebiz by Nick Bunker, director of North American economic research for the Indeed Hiring Lab, Indeed Inc.’s economic research arm.
The proportion, unchanged from October, has ticked downward since May, when it was 3%.
“I would explain the recent decline as a continuation of the decrease in unretirements since the peak in the summer of 2022,” Lund told Mainebiz. “The rise in unretirements was fueled by an unwinding of pandemic-era retirements due to a weaker labor market and health concerns.
"And as the labor market strengthened and COVID concerns waned, many workers unretired. But now we’ve hit a spot where the number of folks who retired but want to return to work has dwindled.”
While the Maine Department of Labor does not keep similar statistics on Maine’s workforce, anecdotal information points to unretirement as an attractive option in the country’s oldest state.
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