Two new sources of data, statistics and insight into how the current economic conditions are affecting mature consumers.  First, the Pew Research Center finds that the majority of 65+ers (Silent Generation members) keep working because they want to and that older workers are happier on the job than younger workers.   However, as the AARP Economic Team notes in a July report, the unemployment rate for people over 55 has increased more sharply than for other age groups.

Read Pew’s report, titled “Recession Turns a Graying Workforce Grayer” at http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/742/americas-changing-work-force.  According to Pew:

According to one government estimate, 93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force from 2006 to 2016 will be among workers ages 55 and older.

Demographic and economic factors explain some — but not all — of these changes. Attitudes about work also play an important role — in particular, the growing desire of an aging but healthy population to stay active well into the later years of life.

(Did you get Labor Day off?  While the burgers cook, we invite you to search this blog.  You’ll find several posts on the desire of Baby Boomers and beyond  to delay retirement, and what that means for marketers.)

AARP’s study, “Older Americans and the Recession,” has several eye-opening charts.  It includes links to research on the impact of stock market woes and disappearing retiree health insurance benefits.  You can find it all at http://www.aarp.org/research/ppi/econ-sec/Other/articles/Older_Americans_and_the_Recession.html.