After the pandemic stirred a wave of early retirements, many folks are deciding that maybe retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The proportion of retirees heading back into the workforce is at a two-year high, according to The Wall Street Journal, after bottoming out in 2020. And whether it’s loneliness, finances, or simply having too much time on your hands, there are plenty of reasons a job, especially part-time, flexible, and remote work, can start to look good to a retiree. Here are some ideal jobs seniors can pursue (with median hourly wages, where applicable, from ZipRecruiter).
Accountant
Median Hourly Pay: $26.46
Accounting skills and experience don’t just go away at retirement. Payroll, tax advice, or as-needed consulting can be done part-time. What’s more, it can also be done remotely. Accountemps at Robert Half has guidance for taking on temporary or part-time accounting jobs.
Administrative Assistant
Median Hourly Pay: $18.20
Retirees can work as administrative assistants or executive secretaries, whose work includes tasks such as organizing, maintaining an appointment schedule, coordinating meetings, filing, document preparation, bookkeeping, and more. While the median pay isn’t very high, experience and being good at the job can translate to a much higher salary in this field.
Customer Service Rep
Median Hourly Pay: $17.03
Ideally, customer service should be more than just listening to complaints — it can be more like detective work to help resolve issues. Interested? FlexJobs has a list of companies that hire for remote customer service jobs.
Delivery Person
Median Hourly Pay: $20.62
Driving packages and documents around can be less work than driving people around. One interesting option for part-time delivery is with Amazon, which promises flexible hours and pay rates from $18 to $25 an hour. With more people working and shopping from home, the need for delivery people has grown substantially.
Public School Teacher
Median Hourly Pay: $20.06
Perhaps you’ve heard — the U.S. is facing an ever-looming teacher shortage. If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at teaching public school, now might be the time to get involved.
Research Assistant
Median Hourly Pay: $20.58
Research assistant is a good job for people who love finding and evaluating information. LinkedIn lists thousands of open research assistant positions in towns and cities nationwide in academic and corporate settings. Pay can depend a great deal on qualifications, experience, and sector.
More Resources …
Whether you found a job on this list you’d like to look into or not, it can help to have more resources to get started. Here are a number of websites that cater to retired job seekers.
- AARP Job Board
- Coolworks: Older and Bolder
- Rent a Grandma
- RetiredBrains
- Retiree Workforce
- RetirementJobs.com
- Seniors4Hire
- Workforce50.com
Retirees should also consider signing up at FlexJobs, which offers a number of opportunities for those who need more flexibility in their schedule or want to work from home.
By Geof Wheelwright for Cheapism©
Source: Boomers are ‘unretiring’ in droves. Here are the best jobs to consider (msn.com)
