Service Figures Prominently in Aging Boomers’ ‘Encore’ Jobs

As more older Americans stay in the labor force, nonprofit and public-service jobs have become prominent features of aging baby boomers’ second careers, writes the Los Angeles Times.

Some 9 million Americans aged 44 to 70 work in “encore” jobs, and tens of millions more would like to, according to a 2011 survey by the MetLife Foundation and Encore.org, a nonprofit that helps link experienced professionals with social-service organizations that often pay them less than past jobs but, older workers tell the Times, offer dividends in personal satisfaction.

“People are going to live longer, and people of modest means are going to work much longer,” Encore.org founder Marc Freedman said. “How do we make that something people genuinely look forward to, and that could be important to society?”