Some Americans ages 50 and over are exiting retirement and returning to work, according to a new AARP survey.
Most surveyed individuals who are “unretiring” say they’re motivated to make money amid today’s high living costs, the nonprofit organization, which represents people ages 50 and older, found.
In the past six months, 7% of retirees have re-entered the labor force, up from 6% who said the same in summer 2025, according to AARP’s survey results. The latest poll’s results are based on responses from 2,083 adults aged 50 and up who were interviewed in November and December. That followed a summer survey of 2,362 adults ages 50 and over conducted in July and August.
“This idea of retirement as a cliff, where we’re all working towards this one day where we finally get to retire, is really not the reality for so many people in this country,” said Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience programming at AARP.
The two most common reasons people retire are financial readiness or a health issue or disability, according to AARP.
