Gallup poll reviews US ‘baby boomers’ views on retirement

Headlined “many baby boomers are reluctant to retire” Gallup present their latest in a series of reviews of the US ‘baby boomer’ generation which they define as those born between 1946-64.  We note this fits with the recent categorisation used in many academic studies though the boundaries are by no mean agreed with ‘start’ dates from 1942 and ‘end’ dates as early as 1960 – this lack of clarity around who is a baby boomer is not reviewed within the gallup piece, nor are the broader issues of cohort theory discussed.

Using data drawn from a phone poll of around 2000 ‘boomers and presenting in terms of ‘% agree’, the results highlighted include that nearly half (49%) of boomers still working say they don’t expect to retire until they are 66 or older, including one in 10 who predict they will never retire.  Using an undisclosed definition of ‘engagement’ they suggest that more engaged workers are more likely to delay retirement and thus conclude “A targeted effort to engage baby boomers could have important ramifications for healthcare costs and productivity for individual workplaces and the overall U.S. economy”.  We would have to see a more robust exploration of this issue before we could agree with this conclusion drawn from the data presented.