How to Help Older Workers Reduce Stress and Stay Productive as They Near Retirement

The traditional gold-watch retirement sendoff is on the brink of extinction. While freedom from work is still celebrated as a well-earned reward for a job well done, many Americans are delaying their exit from the workforce.

Prospective retirees often report that their impending transition to retirement is more stressful than they anticipated – a slippery slope of mixed emotions ranging from excitement and relief to anxiety and depression. Related mental health symptoms may include mood swings, irritation, and poor concentration, combined with physical symptoms like headache, stomach upsets, muscle strains, and fatigue.

Mental Health Month in May and the development of age-related conditions reminds us of the reasons why WorkCare has supported employee health, safety, and well-being “from hire to retire” since its founding in 1984. To effectively manage workforce demographic shifts, WorkCare’s team of occupational health professionals encourages employers to adopt interventions that help prevent accidents and injuries and control healthcare and insurance costs that rise as employees get older.

If Retirement is So Great, Why Do So Many People Keep Working?

People are living longer. In 2024, life expectancy for American men averaged 76.5 years and 81.4 years for women, primarily due to advances in medicine, nutrition, and sanitation.

Practically speaking, the majority of older employees who remain employed or return to work after retiring do so because they need the money and/or health insurance coverage for themselves or family members. In its 2025 survey series, AARP learned that 41% percent of respondents 50 and older were working or looking for work to cover everyday living costs. Among older Americans, AARP also found:

• 24% are concerned about losing their job within the next year
• 67% believe it would be difficult to find a new job right now
• 35% cite age discrimination as the main reason for a job loss
• 22% identify health issues or a disability as main reasons to retire

“With the cost of living still high and many people worried that they don’t have enough saved for retirement, the trend of older adults working longer will likely continue,” said Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience planning at AARP. She offers this reminder for employers: “Older workers contribute a wealth of experience, skills, and perspectives to the workplace, and many are eager to learn new skills and technology. For employers, tapping into their skills and expertise makes good business sense.”

For many individuals,  financial insecurity is a leading cause of stress. There are strong correlations between struggling to make ends meet, anxiety, depression, substance use, and cutting corners on nutrition, sleep, and exercise. Repeated studies show that employees with a firm sense of financial well-being tend to be more productive, with higher job satisfaction, less turnover, lower healthcare costs, and reduced rates of work absence and disability when compared to those who are financially unstable.

Aside from these concerns, the reasons why some people opt to continue working vary: Their personal identity is entwined with their profession. Work gives them a purpose. They want to stay physically active and socially engaged. They have valuable knowledge to pass on to younger co-workers, and so on.

Fluctuations in Retirement Age and Vulnerable Occupations

Full retirement age related to the distribution of Social Security benefits is 67 for those born during or after 1960 and 66 for those born before then. Age 70 is the cap for maximum monthly benefits. Social Security recipients are not required to stop working.

In 2025, the median retirement age in the U.S. was 65 for men and 63 to 64 for women. From 1994 to 2014, there was a notable trend: the number of people who remained in the workforce after age 65 increased by about 117%, many of them in full-time positions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projected that the labor force participation rate for workers aged 65 to 74 would reach 30.2% by 2026, compared to 17.5% in 1996. For workers aged 75 and older, the participation rate was projected to hit 10.8%, more than double the 4.7% recorded in 1996. A 2026 AARP survey found a 7% “unretirement rate” among Americans over 50.

According to the BLS, industries with the highest concentrations of older workers include public administration/government and high-hazard sectors like agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting, and utilities, mining, and natural resources. In general, older employees have lower injury incident rates than less-experienced younger workers.

However, when older employees are injured, they typically miss more workdays than younger workers due to age-related factors like injury severity, slower healing, pre-existing musculoskeletal disorders or underlying chronic diseases, and declines in physical and/or emotional resilience.

Travelers reported in 2025 that U.S. employees across all age categories missed an average of 80 workdays per injury from 2020 to 2024, while employees 60 and older missed an average of 97 days. In April 2026, Sedgwick reported  that workers’ compensation claim rates have been rising among older workers while declining for those under age 60. These conditions suggest that older employees could benefit from workplace policies that encourage immediate reporting of discomfort so appropriate care can be provided at injury onset.

Retirement Planning Falls Short of the Mark

In Retirement in America: An Analysis of Retirement Preparedness Among Working-Age Americans, the National Institute on Retirement Security reports that many employees are not saving enough to replace the paycheck they will no longer receive. According to the analysis:

• The median amount saved for retirement by those who are 55 to 64 years old is $30,000; among workers across all age groups, the median is just $955 in savings per employee.
• An estimated 67% of employees in private industry sectors have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans; lower-wage earners have less access to these plans.
• Younger employees face tradeoffs between meeting immediate needs like paying for necessities of daily living and repaying student loan debt and setting money aside for eventual retirement.
• Social Security accounts for about half of income for a typical older adult, while income from defined benefit and contribution plans comprises about one-fifth of income, on average.

According to The Case for Lifetime Income, a study by the Global Aging Institute and Prudential, a strategic shift among employers from defined benefit (DB) pensions to defined contribution (DC) retirement savings plans is one of the most consequential retirement policy developments to occur in the past 50 years. DB pensions provide retirees with guaranteed income for life while DC plans typically require voluntary employee contributions.

“Although DC plans can provide lifetime income if account balances are annuitized, in practice relatively few DC systems require even partial annuitization, while many make no provision for lifetime income at all,” the report states. “This is unfortunate, since lifetime income has enormous benefits.”

Ways Your Organization Can Support Older Workers and Gain ROI Benefits

Organizations can adopt comprehensive workforce health, safety management, and benefit plan strategies to help valued employees reduce stress and ease into the retirement life that they envision. Employers can gain measurable benefits from a return on their investment in the health, safety, and emotional well-being of older workers by:

1. Counteracting fear of identify loss and personal value by offering:
   • Phased retirement programs that gradually reduce hours
   • Retirement-transition coaching focused on lifestyle shifts
   • Conversations about exit strategies as part of career development
   • Chances to participate in volunteer or community service programs
   • Mentorship opportunities that match older employees with younger workers
   • Part-time roles that are less demanding but still add value
2. Identifying cost-containment opportunities: Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program tracks five universally desired domains: happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. The program cites related research that associates “aging satisfaction” with positive health outcomes, reduced risk of depression, and longer life expectancy. In a Health and Retirement Study with 11,374 participants, researchers found that certain physical, behavioral, and psychosocial factors can be used to predict the frequency and duration of overnight hospitalizations by older adults and identify behavioral changes that could lower healthcare costs, decrease the need for hospital care, and improve outcomes.
3. Fully integrating workplace occupational health, safety, wellness, and benefit offerings: Keeping these essential functions in operational “silos” can increase insurance premiums, cause operational disruptions, and undermine an organization’s ability to proactively manage risk, retain talent, and foster a culture of physical and mental well-being. 
4. For example, WorkCare’s Wellness Solutions holistic health programs focus on fulfilling eight dimensions of wellness – including physical fitness, behavioral health, and financial stability – for a balanced life on and off the job so every employee can perform at their best and optimize their retirement. Another WorkCare delivery model, From Safety to Wellness®, features:
   • Predictive analytics to identify workplace exposure risk patterns and trends before they become costly problems.
   • Timely interventions for physical or mental health conditions to encourage rapid recovery and safe return to work.
   • Safety training with wellness initiatives that promote healthy behaviors, directly impacting productivity and business outcomes.

Let WorkCare Help You Manage Employee Health from Hire to Retire

Retirement is a moving target. American workers are often not well-prepared to manage complex financial, psychological, and social retirement-transition challenges that arise while they are still employed. Employers who recognize the transition to retirement as a process rather than a single event are better positioned to attract and retain talent, preserve institutional knowledge, and support long-term employee well-being.

WorkCare can help your organization develop programs that help protect and promote the health and safety of valued employees who have contributed to your success and earned a stress-free transition out of the workforce. Schedule a call with our team today to learn more about the ways WorkCare can support your business objectives…from hire to retire.