Older workers trade money for less stress

updated 12:52 p.m. ET May 10, 2009

CHICAGO - Less pay, fewer benefits, lower prestige — and greater job satisfaction.

Older workers and retirees moving into different lines of work can take heart from a new study that finds they are likely to enjoy their new jobs more than their old ones.

In an era when pink slips are increasing and some career paths may be cut short because of the economy, all too many job switches may be forced rather than voluntary for the foreseeable future.

Despite the shortcomings, however, there's new evidence which suggests that career changes work out well for the overwhelming majority of older workers because of reduced stress and flexible work schedules.

AARP followed over-50 workers for more than a decade to study career changes and find out how they fared. In all, 91 percent of the study group said they enjoyed their new jobs, a significant bump up from a 79 percent thumbs-up for their old jobs.

"The study shows dramatically that workers are putting a premium on reduced stress as they downshift a bit," said Susan Reinhard, senior vice president of the AARP Public Policy Institute.

A report was released Thursday on the study, based on 1,705 workers nationwide who were surveyed over a 14-year period beginning in 1992. The study was conducted for the AARP Public Policy Institute by The Urban Institute of Washington.

"The current downturn presents a real bump in the road," Reinhard said. "But for the future, the findings are a welcome signal that workers 50 and over can really enjoy themselves while remaining productive in a vibrant economy."

Already common, career change among older workers is likely to grow even more as the baby-boom generation nears traditional retirement age.

Murray Scureman, 70, of Potomac, Md., didn't wait for a recession to make the leap. He walked away from a lucrative job as lobbyist for a computer manufacturer to pursue his passion: building.

Today the one-time systems engineer, who is divorced, runs a successful home renovation business and doesn't look back even though he makes roughly half his old corporate salary of about $200,000.

"It's about 'What do you want to do when you grow up?'" he said.

Scureman knew it was time to act when he started to eat, sleep and think renovation at his old job — doodling in meetings while giving his own home a makeover in his free time. He finally left to start a business with a builder before ultimately striking out on his own with Denham Development Group.

The new job isn't so new any more — he made the leap in 1998 — but he loves it no less than he did a decade ago. While overseeing crews at a handful of project sites daily he likes to work up a sweat of his own, unloading lumber trucks, carrying 2-by-4s and swinging a hammer.

"I think it's what's keeping me going," said Scureman, who wasn't a subject of the AARP study but changed careers with results similar to its findings. "When I was in corporate America, I would get sick up to three times a year, catching whatever went through the office. I haven't been sick in 10 years."

The study tracked full-time workers who were ages 51 to 55 in 1992 until 2006. Two-thirds of the workers who changed jobs during that time — and 27 percent of all the workers — switched occupations.

Their new careers, including part-time work, paid them significantly less per hour: a median hourly wage of $10.86 in 2007 dollars, down from $16.86 in the old job. Nearly a quarter of the career-changers lost health insurance benefits and many gave up pensions. The jobs tended to have less social standing than the earlier work, with many former managers moving into sales.

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