A year ago, after a career working for airline and cargo companies, Paul Lugo was out of work and on the brink of losing his Kendall condo to foreclosure, The Miami Herald reports.
He had been laid off in the midst of a recession and was at an age -- 64 -- when he and his contemporaries typically might be considering retirement.
But Lugo was looking for a job.
He isn't alone.
In these uncertain economic times, more older workers are finding the need to keep working during this recession and putting off retirement, and others, already retired, are looking for jobs. Now, about 16 percent of the workforce is 65 or older -- levels unseen since the 1970s, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
''I think older people are increasingly looking for the opportunity to stay at work or perhaps to go back to work,'' said Max Rothman, president of the Miami nonprofit Alliance for Aging.
In the past, Rothman said, retirees worked to merely supplement Social Security and pension income, to remain social or because retirement turned out to be less satisfying than they planned.
But now ''there is an obvious economic motivation for some older people'' to work, he said.
Recognizing that need, the Labor Department got a $120 million boost from the $787 billion economic stimulus package for its Senior Community Service Employment program. The program provides temporary, subsidized, part-time community service jobs to low-income workers 55 and older.
In September, Lugo was finally placed in a data-entry job through that program, by an AARP-run site in Cutler Bay. The program places people in temporary work while they look for other jobs. A week later, Lugo was offered a job helping other low-income seniors find part-time work at the AARP site.
''I know what they're going through,'' said Lugo, who also managed to get his mortgage modified -- cutting his monthly payment in half. He's finally making ends meet.
A survey completed this month by the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows that there are more retirees who are worried about whether they have enough money to carry them through their retirement years. Since the first year of the survey in 1993, the percentage of retirees who are not at all confident in their retirement income lasting has grown from 3 percent to 22 percent this year.
During previous recessions, the percentage of Americans over 65 working or looking for work declined as the economic downturn dragged on, said Richard Johnson, of the Urban Institute. That's not the case this time around, he said.
The participation rate -- the share of men in that age group who are employed or say they are looking for work -- went from 21.0 to 21.8 percent from the beginning of the current recession to March, Johnson said. The rate also grew for women in that age group for the same time period.
''Back in the '70s when things got tough, people could afford to retire,'' Johnson said. "Today, particularly with the way the stock market has gone and the collapse of housing prices people just can't afford to retire. Instead of people dropping out of the labor force, they're going back into it.''
While some older people stay on the job during economic downturns, others turn to Social Security because their jobs are eliminated, said Mark Lassiter, a Social Security Administration spokesman.
The agency reported a nearly 9 percent increase in retirement claims during the last three months of 2008.
An increase was expected because baby boomers, Americans born roughly between 1946 and 1964, are starting to retire, but the jump was higher than anticipated because of the recession, Lassiter said.
An AARP survey of 1,100 people conducted in December indicated that 16 percent of people 45 and older were thinking of postponing their eventual retirement because of the economic downturn.
But the percentage of people planning to delay retirement shot up to 57 percent among respondents who were working or looking for a job and had lost money in the market during the past year.
After 37 years running a Miami-Dade export business, Len Albert retired to Lake Worth.
Until recently, he happily whiled away hours each week playing golf at a Wellington golf course, unconcerned about the $50 fees per round.
''Before the market collapsed on us, we had no difficulty enjoying the fruits of our labors,'' said Albert. He was responding to a post on Genkvetch.com, a social networking web site started in South Florida for baby boomers and beyond.
But now, at 79, he works at the course where he once played three days a week as a ranger, which gives him golf privileges.
''That saves me some nice bucks,'' he said, "And we get a little salary to go along with it.''
Coral Gables certified financial planner Elaine King said she is helping many of her older clients reexamine their finances, and some are choosing to continue working. And some are changing their view of what luxuries and pastimes their retired lifestyle can affordably include.
Merrill Gottlieb had a career in healthcare administration in New York before moving to West Palm Beach 12 years ago. He tried to retire, but ended up working for the state of Florida for 10 years.
He officially retired in 2007 -- or so he thought.
''Before the economy took its little downturn, things were going fairly nicely. There was money set aside for vacations,'' said Gottlieb, 68.
But vacations abroad became vacations in the continental United States. Now there are no vacations, not even trips to see his daughter in Michigan.
Last year, he created a consulting business, working with hospitals and healthcare institutions to help keep them in compliance with state and federal rules.
''I didn't expect to work for the rest of my life,'' he said. ``I don't have to punch a clock as much, but it impinges upon what you can do.''
(The preceding article by Nirvi Shah was published April 19, 2009, by The Miami Herald.)
