More than half of American workers over 60 are postponing retirement

There are many good reasons to keep working after retirement, but some Americans are having trouble getting to that stage of life. New CareerBuilder research shows that 53% of people ages 60 and up report that “they are postponing retirement” — 40% think they’ll have to wait to retire until at least age 70 — and 24% of workers say they don’t know how much money they’ll need to put away for their Golden Years.

Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder, commented on the decision for some to keep on working: “Postponing retirement will make an impact across all of our country’s workforce, along with retirement policy and financial and healthcare planning.”

“With workers staying in their jobs longer, employers are adjusting hiring needs,” she added, “but also reaping the benefits of the extra skills and mentoring abilities of mature employees.”

The Harris Poll surveyed 809 American adult workers working full-time, and who weren’t “self-employed” or working for the government. Here are some of the points that stood out.

Northeast savers

The research also broke the findings down by region, with the Northeast leading in terms of how many people (73%) are putting money in their retirement accounts. The South had the lowest amount of savers at 67%. Sixty-nine percent are saving in the Midwest and 71% are saving in the West.

While 31% of women and 17% of men say they don’t know how much money to save for retirement, the numbers also show how many older people aren’t prepared for their Golden Years: 23% of workers age 55 and older don’t have a retirement plan, such as an IRA or 401(k).

What people think they’ll need

The survey shows that when asked how much they will need for retirement, the most popular answer was “$500,000 to less than $1 million” at 31%, followed by “less than $500,000” came in second place at 20%. The option of “$1 million to less than $2 million” claimed third place at 14%, then “$3 million or more” at 7%, followed by “$2 million to less than $3 million” at 5%.

No matter how much money you think you need to save for retirement, it’s better to put some money away than none at all. CareerBuilder found that a whopping 40% of those ages 18 to 34 don’t have a retirement plan.

Earlier research found that in 2017, many millennials doled out more cash for coffee than they’d saved for retirement — but that definitely doesn’t mean you have to do the same.

This article originally appeared on Ladders, a publication dedicated to breaking news, opinion, analysis and advice at the cutting edge of our changing workplace. For more, sign up for Ladders' newsletter here.