The headline on the story is "Getting older but working longer." No kidding:
For many years, the average retirement age for men had fallen through much of the 20th century.
“By the mid-1980s, it had dropped down to 62 or 63 and stayed there for 20 years or so.”
But new data compiled by and recently released by the Center for Retirement Research shows the age of retirement has climbed significantly. The center looked at data from the U.S. Department of Labor, defining average age of retirement as the youngest age at which at least 50 percent of men have left the labor force.
“In the past couple of years, it's been jumping up, and now the average age is about 65,” according to 2008 figures. “Even though that doesn't sound like a lot, it's actually a dramatic departure from what it was for about 20 years.”
I actually considered (very briefly) staying in the Army, because I would have been able to "retire" after 30 years, or even 20 on a reduced pension. And early in my newspaper career, I nodded approvingly and knowingly when one of my editors outlined his plans to retire at 50. The way things are going now, I figure I can afford to retire by the time I'm about 70, if I give up a
