Why retirement may be harder to reach for many older Americans in 2026

• More older Americans are returning to work due to financial insecurity and rising costs.
• Surveys show many retirees fear their savings won't last through retirement.
• Experts have called for stronger support and flexible job opportunities for older workers.

It may be increasingly common next year to see an older worker staffing the cash register at your local grocery store.

Surveys released in recent months suggest that older Americans are more worried about having to unretire, fearing their savings won't last them 20 to 30 years. US Bank's 2025 Wealth Report, released in September, shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans worry they may have to reenter the workforce, while 58% of people believe their money will last them in their retirement years.

This is echoed by ResumeBuilder.com's survey of 3,574 Americans aged 65 and older, released last week. The survey reveals that nearly one in eight plan to rejoin the workforce in 2026 or already have. Over a third of older Americans still working don't plan to retire until the next decade. About 4% of older Americans surveyed are applying for jobs, while 8% returned to work over the last few years. Slightly over 70% reported being retired. These findings are similar to the past two iterations of the survey.

And a third survey from AARP Research from October found that 6% of retirees went back to work in the past six months due to a negative economic outlook.

Over the past year, I've spoken to over 250 older Americans, most of whom still work. The majority said they never retired or unretired because of financial uncertainty. Some lived paycheck to paycheck with limited savings and no defined-benefit pension plan. Others had six figures in the bank but knew the money would run dry if they faced a sudden diagnosis or emergency. Many others worked because they wanted to feel fulfilled, have a purpose and a community, and stay active.

As Americans reflect on 2025 in its final week, many retirees are calculating and stress-testing if they have enough to endure various financial situations. For those falling short, unretiring may be the best option.

In 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics outlined that the labor force for Americans 75 and older is expected to grow by upwards of 96% through 2030. Census Bureau data shows that in 2024, nearly 20% of people 65 and older worked at least part-time.

To be sure, the unretirement rate from pre-COVID through mid-2024 has steadily declined from 3.2% in late 2018 to 1.9%, which suggests older workers are struggling to rejoin the labor market.

My 80 Over 80 series, which explored why people continue to work into their 80s and 90s, found that 4.2% of Americans 80 and older work, the highest it's been in decades. Many unretired after months, years, or decades of not working.

These recent surveys, as well as some from earlier this year, show that retirement is elongating as life spans grow — and may be harder to achieve in the coming years.

"Because of the rise in costs, people's fixed incomes, their Social Security benefits, aren't enough to cover all their expenses," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, in an interview with Business Insider. "We know that 47% of workers lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, and 55% report no dedicated retirement savings. We know that many seniors won't have enough money to retire comfortably."

Americans want to retire, but actually doing so is a different story

Surveys published this year continue to show that Americans prioritize a healthy and stable retirement. However, many aren't taking the necessary steps to get there, and many aren't in financial or employment situations to do so.

The US Bank report found that 37% of working adults are actively preparing for retirement, while 48% of Americans contribute to their retirement savings. Nearly a quarter of Generation X respondents said they have abandoned their goal of retiring. Three-quarters of millennials and Generation Z worried about needing to come out of retirement, as many of the traditional milestones — buying a house or starting a family — feel harder to grasp.

This year hasn't done many favors for older Americans, either. The Resume Builder survey found that 54% of older Americans who still work or are unretiring cited the high cost of living, while a similar amount said they enjoyed work. Inflation has remained stubbornly high this year, registering at 2.7% for the 12 months ending in November. Inflation has been higher than the overall average for housing and various medical expenses.

The survey further found that over a quarter of older workers were nervous about potential Social Security changes, while a fifth were concerned about Medicare changes.

"For many seniors, retirement has become more flexible than final," said ResumeBuilder.com's chief career advisor Stacie Haller in the survey release. "At the same time, today's workplace offers far more flexible opportunities for older professionals."

Faced with a difficult job market, though, many older Americans said they won't relinquish their job because they anticipate not being able to find another, citing factors such as ageism. The AARP Research survey found that nearly two-thirds of older workers believe it would be challenging for them to find another job, especially since older workers already experience longer stretches of unemployment on average than younger people.

Others who unretired said they've opted for part-time employment or gig work, which were easier to secure and maintain. A few returned to school or took online classes to improve their skills in hopes of finding more stable employment.

To be sure, many of those still working into their 70s, 80s, and 90s told Business Insider that they wouldn't retire even if they had the means to. However, dozens said they wished they could work fewer hours, more flexible hours, or in a different profession that didn't wear them down as much.

'No shame' in returning to work

Throughout the year, experts on retirement and aging stressed that returning to work was not something to view as shameful. Research papers overwhelmingly show the benefits of continuing to work in one's later years, such as sustained cognitive function and improved mental health outcomes — provided the worker has flexibility and can handle the job.

These insights seemed to put some older readers at ease. In interviews, dozens of workers in their 80s said they felt like a failure for not being in a position to retire or pass down a significant inheritance to their children, though hearing that they weren't alone made them feel more confident. In responses and emails to my articles, some older readers said they considered going back to work after reading about many people who successfully did so.

Dozens of politicians, researchers on aging, and anti-ageism advocates said more should be done in the short term to ensure older Americans have the employment opportunities they need to live comfortably and have more financial support to guide them through their later years. To be sure, some experts said that returning to work shouldn't be the long-term solution, as the safety net should be more robust so people only need to return to work if they desire.

"A lot of our older adults need resources to survive, and so we want to make sure that the workforce is available to them, and they won't be discriminated against from being hired and working if they need to," Gillibrand said in reference to the Protecting Older Americans Act she co-introduced.