Pandemic Retirees Unretiring?

The Washington Post recently published Millions retired early during the pandemic. Many are now returning to work, new data shows. Although a significant number of folks retired early, 

An estimated 1.5 million retirees have reentered the U.S. labor market over the past year, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by ... an economist.... That means the economy has made up most of the extra losses of retirees since February 2020, a Washington Post analysis shows.

Many retirees are being pulled back to jobs by a combination of diminishing covid concerns and more flexible work arrangements at a time when employers are desperate for workers. In some cases, workers say rising costs — and the inability to keep up while on a fixed income — are factoring heavily into their decisions as well.

But those reentering the work force are not just those who retired during the pandemic. 

The percentage of retirees returning to work has picked up momentum in recent months, hitting a pandemic high of 3.2 percent in March, according to Indeed. In interviews with nearly a dozen workers who recently “un-retired," many said they felt comfortable returning to work now that they’ve gotten the coronavirus vaccine and booster shots. Almost all said they’d taken on jobs that were more accommodating of their needs, whether that meant being able to work remotely, travel less or set their own hours.

The article provides a number of interesting examples of individuals who are "unretiring" and why they chose to do so.