And throughout the United States, thousands of Americans in their 80s are punching a time clock every morning — not for cushy desk jobs but to punch out physically punishing work and, yes, actually dangerous ones. New data reveals that more than half a million people over the age of 80 are part of the workforce, and many — surprisingly — hold physically demanding jobs in construction, delivery driving, agriculture, and grounds maintenance. It is a portrait of aging in America that combines resilience with deep economic distress.
Many of these workers say they never imagined being in this position so late in life. They envisioned retirement — a period of leisure, travel, time with grandchildren, or just shooting the breeze. But for older Americans, the economic landscape is vastly different. Decades of wage stagnation, soaring living costs, rising medical bills, and unequal retirement savings have diminished the prospect of working until your 80s from an extracurricular fantasy to a financial necessity for many older Americans. And the jobs that are hiring, for some people, aren’t particularly kind to aging bodies.
Interviews with older workers have found a familiar refrain: they’re taking available jobs, not necessarily the safest ones. Antarctic Old folks who make our lives easy have taken on such jobs in recent years as home-building helpers, forklift operators, landscapers, janitors, grocery clerks, and truck drivers hauling tens of thousands of pounds at highway speeds. In many cases, these jobs entail heavy lifting, repetitive movements, exposure to heat or cold, and the potential for slips, collisions, or equipment failure. Younger workers may heal relatively swiftly from an accident; for someone in his or her 80s, the repercussions are much more dire.
Researchers who study aging in the workplace say the most startling issue isn’t simply that older Americans are working dangerous jobs, but that many feel they have no realistic choice. A substantial fraction has little or no retirement savings. Social Security checks are often not enough to cover rent, groceries, insurance premiums, and prescription drugs. Medicare goes a long way, but copays and uncovered treatments can still rack up. Some workers say every day they wake up in pain, but it would be worse not to go to work — that would mean missed bills or debt or the need to ask their children for help and many, many would rather suffer than do that.
There’s also a psychological component. Work gives people in their 80s identity, purpose, and a reason to continue on. They’ve spent a lifetime — often working hard their whole lives, in physically demanding work — and it’s impossible to imagine stopping. But even those who like their work say that the dangers have increased. An 81-year-old delivery driver told researchers he loved meeting people on his route, but he worried every time he carried heavy packages down icy stairs. A recently retired carpenter who spent his life in Connecticut told me he still helps out on job sites, but he makes a point of lifting less than he once did, even though “less” means carrying lumber heavier than he is.
On that trend line, the ranks of workers over 75 have surged in the past decade and are expected to continue increasing, according to federal labor data. Younger workers? Their risk of on-the-job injury is lower than that of older workers, while their recoveries are quicker and less costly in terms of medical expenses. Several studies have found that older workers are not exposed to more hazards, but when something does go wrong, the consequences are worse. Bones become more fragile, reflexes slower — even the aging process itself makes it progressively harder for decades.
This situation, economists say, underscores two significant challenges: the country’s spotty retirement system and its lack of age-friendly jobs. Many companies continue to demand that workers endure physical rigors that people in their 80s ought not have to endure. Few offer lighter-duty options or jobs tailored to older workers’ needs. At the national level, pension reforms are haphazard, and the shift to individual retirement accounts has left many people out in the cold if they failed to save consistently over the decades.
Some states and employers are testing fixes, such as part-time , flexible positions for older adults. These jobs emphasize safety and ergonomics, or retraining programs that allow seniors to transition into less taxing lines of work. But those efforts, even when summed together, are dwarfed by the scope of the problem. And for workers already in their 80s, the clock is ticking.
One of the most sobering aspects is that older Americans working dangerous jobs usually do so solo, with little help and few resources if something goes wrong. If an 82-year-old field laborer drops in the heat, or an 84-year-old janitor slips on a wet floor working at night, the consequences can be not only life-changing but also life-threatening. Families frequently shoulder the emotional and financial burdens, and employers don’t always have the resources in place to prevent — or respond to — the emergencies that older workers encounter.
Yet many workers interviewed express a note of pride. They talk of dedication, of laboring hard throughout their lives, and of desiring to stay active. Some say they feel invisible, that their decades of experience don’t mean anything in a system designed for the young and the fast. Yet others say they want to continue for as long as possible, however risky the prospect of standing in groups with strangers might be; the alternative feels like giving up, they said.
The tens of thousands of 80-year-olds laboring in risky jobs now suggest something more complicated about the U.S. economy: It’s not aging that is the problem — it’s insecurity. These are not workers who wanted to spend their later years lugging equipment or driving delivery trucks on icy roads, but economic reality led them there. And without structural changes, the generation after that could suffer the same fate.
In the meantime, the oldest workers in this country are showing up every morning and performing tasks that people half their age would have trouble keeping up with, taking risks they should not have to bear. What America does, or does not do, to address the forces that put them there will shape the future of aging in a still largely youthful workforce.
