Half of Americans age 55 and up will retire in or near poverty.
That's the shocking analysis from Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at The New School in New York City.
According to Marketwatch, Ghilarducci says because of the recession about 50% of workers will be poor or near poverty when they reach 65.
For the study, poverty is defined as a person living on less than $20,000 a year.
Ghilarducci tells Marketwatch “Older workers are losing their jobs at a faster rate, relative to younger people and relative to where they had been before than they were in the Great Recession.”
A report done by the New School Retirement Equity Lab found that over half of older unemployed workers may be forced into involuntary retirement. Nearly three million older workers have left the labor force since March and if the economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 continue, another million could join them soon.
“A total of four million people potentially pushed into retirement before they are ready will increase old-age poverty and exacerbate the recession,” Ghilarducci and her colleagues wrote.
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