A new Pew Research Center study suggests this pattern may well continue in 2012. Millennial voters are inclined to back President Barack Obama by a wide margin in a potential matchup against former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, while Silent generation voters are solidly behind Romney. Baby Boomers and Generation X voters, who are the most anxious about the uncertain economic times, are on the fence about a second term for Obama.

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At the same time, the polling identifies potential fissures

at both ends of the age spectrum that may affect these patterns. Older

Republican-oriented voters, unlike younger people, rate Social Security as a

top voting issue. While they favor the GOP on most issues, this is not the case

for Social Security. Younger Democratic-leaning voters continue to support

Obama at much higher levels than do older generations. But Obama’s job ratings

have fallen steeply among this group, as well as among older generations, since

early 2009. Perhaps more ominously for Obama, Millennials are much less engaged

in politics than they were at this stage in the 2008 campaign.

Read the full report for more information on these subjects:

• How attitudes of different generations have been shaped by social and political trends
• The generational age gap and the 2012 elections
• Views of Obama and the political parties
• Views of the nation
• Generations and the Great Recession
• Views on entitlement programs
• Views of government
• Domestic and foreign policy views

Overview

Many devices have become popular across generations, with a majority of adults now owning cell phones, laptops and desktop computers. Younger adults are leading the way in increased mobility, preferring laptops to desktops and using their cell phones for a variety of functions, including internet, email, music, games and video.

Among the findings:

• Cell phones are by far the most popular device among American adults, especially for adults younger than age 65. Some 85% of adults own cell phones. Taking pictures (done by 76% of cell owners) and text messaging (done by 72% of cell owners) are the two non-voice functions that are widely popular among all cell phone users.
• Desktop computers are the most popular with adults ages 35-65, with 69% of Gen X, 65% of Younger Boomers and 64% of Older Boomers owning these devices.
• Millennials are the only generation that is more likely to own a laptop computer or netbook than a desktop: 70% own a laptop, compared with 57% who own a desktop.
• While almost half of all adults own an mp3 player like an iPod, this device is by far the most popular with Millennials, the youngest generation — 74% of adults ages 18-34 own an mp3 player, compared with 56% of the next oldest generation, Gen X (ages 35-46).
• Game consoles are significantly more popular with adults ages 18-46, with 63% owning these devices.
• Just 5% of all adults own an e-book reader; they are least popular with adults ages 75 and older, with only 2% owning this device.
• Tablet computers, such as the iPad, are most popular with American adults ages 65 and younger. Only 4% of all adults own this device.
• Additionally, 9% adults do not own any of the devices we asked about, including 43% of adults ages 75 and older.

(Click here for a full-sized infographic exploring the survey’s findings about generations and gadget ownership on pewinternet.org.)

In terms of generations, Millennials are by far the most likely group not only to own most of the devices we asked about, but also to take advantage of a wider range of functions. For instance, while cell phones have become ubiquitous in American households, most cell phone owners use only two of the main non-voice functions on their phones: taking pictures and text messaging. Among Millennials, meanwhile, a majority use their phones also for going online, sending email, playing games, listening to music and recording videos.

Gen X, however, is very similar to Millennials in ownership of certain devices, such as game consoles. Members of Gen X are also more likely than Millennials to own a desktop computer.

e-Book readers and tablet computers so far have not seen significant differences in ownership between generations, although members of the oldest generation (adults ages 75 and older) are less likely than younger generations to own these devices.

These findings are based on a survey of 3,001 American adults (ages 18 and older) conducted between Aug. 9 and Sept. 13, 2010. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, and the survey included 1,000 cell phone interviews. (More information is available in the methodology section of the full report.)

In this chart, the dips in tech ownership registered in the September 2010 survey are mostly a result of the fact that Spanish interviews were added to the survey. Most of the Pew Internet surveys before 2010 were only conducted in English. The Project has added Spanish to this survey which had the effect of reducing the overall tech-ownership numbers in some instances because respondents who chose to be interviewed in Spanish were somewhat less likely than others to be tech non-users.

Read the full report at pewinternet.org.

The iconic image of the Baby Boom generation is a 1960s-era snapshot of an exuberant, long-haired, rebellious young adult. That portrait wasn’t entirely accurate even then, but it’s hopelessly out of date now. This famously huge cohort of Americans finds itself in a funk as it approaches old age.

On Jan. 1, 2011, the oldest Baby Boomers will turn 65. Every day for the next 19 years, about 10,000 more will cross that threshold. By 2030, when all Baby Boomers will have turned 65, fully 18% of the nation’s population will be at least that age, according to Pew Research Center population projections. Today, just 13% of Americans are ages 65 and older.

Perched on the front stoop of old age, Baby Boomers are more downbeat than other age groups about the trajectory of their own lives and about the direction of the nation as a whole.

Some of this pessimism is related to life cycle — for most people, middle age is the most demanding and stressful time of life.¹ Some of the gloominess, however, appears to be particular to Boomers, who bounded onto the national stage in the 1960s with high hopes for remaking society, but who’ve spent most of their adulthood trailing other age cohorts in overall life satisfaction.

At the moment, the Baby Boomers are pretty glum. Fully 80% say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today, compared with 60% of those ages 18 to 29 (Millennials), 69% of those ages 30 to 45 (Generation Xers) and 76% of those ages 65 and older (the Silent and Greatest Generations), according to a Pew Research Center survey taken earlier this month.

Boomers are also more downbeat than other adults about the long-term trajectory of their lives — and their children’s. Some 21% say their own standard of living is lower than their parents’ was at the age they are now; among all non-Boomer adults, just 14% feel this way, according to a May 2010 Pew Research survey. The same survey found that 34% of Boomers believe their own children will not enjoy as good a standard of living as they themselves have now; by contrast, just 21% of non-Boomers say the same.²

The 79-million-member Baby Boomer generation accounts for 26% of the total U.S. population. By force of numbers alone, they almost certainly will redefine old age in America, just as they’ve made their mark on teen culture, young adult life and middle age.

But don’t tell Boomers that old age starts at age 65. The typical Boomer believes that old age doesn’t begin until age 72, according to a 2009 Pew Research survey. About half of all American adults say they feel younger than their actual age, but fully 61% of Boomers say this. In fact, the typical Boomer feels nine years younger than his or her chronological age.³

On a range of social issues, Baby Boomers are more accepting of changes in American culture and mores than are adults ages 65 and older, though generally less tolerant than the young. On matters related to personal finances, economic security and retirement expectations, they feel more damaged by the Great Recession than do older adults.

Boomers are latecomers to the digital revolution, but are beginning to close their gadget and social media gap with younger generations. For example, among younger Boomers (ages 46-55), fully half now use social networks, compared with 20% in 2008. That rate of growth is more rapid than for younger generations. Also, more than half (55%) of older Boomers (ages 56-64) now watch online video, compared with 30% in 2008.

On the political front, Boomers — like the nation as a whole — have done some partisan switching in recent years. They narrowly favored Barack Obama for president in 2008 (by 50%-49%), then supported Republican congressional candidates by 53%-45% in the 2010 midterm elections, according to election day exit polls. In their core political attitudes about the role of government, they’re more conservative than younger adults and more liberal than older adults, according to a comprehensive 2010 Pew Research report on long-term trends in political values by generation.

In 1970, when the oldest of the Baby Boomers were in their early 20s, the total publicly held national debt was about $283 billion, or about 28% of Gross Domestic Product. Now, as the oldest Boomers approach age 65, the federal debt is an estimated $9 trillion or 62% of GDP — creating IOUs that members of younger generations may be paying down for decades.⁴

However, a new Pew Research survey finds little appetite among Boomers for deficit reduction proposals that would take a bite out of their own pocketbooks. For example, 68% of Boomers (compared with 56% of all adults) oppose eliminating the tax deduction for interest paid on home mortgages; 80% (compared with 72% of all adults) oppose taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits; and 63% (compared with 58% of all adults) oppose raising the age for qualifying for full Social Security benefits.⁵

The Pew Research Center has a deep archive of work that analyzes the demographics, economics, religious beliefs and practices and social and political values of the Baby Boomer generation, and makes comparisons with younger and older U.S. age groups. Our survey work includes questions about family life, personal finances, technology use, aging and a range of other topics.

Views on Social Change

When asked about the array of changes transforming American family life, the Boomers’ views align more closely with younger generations than older ones. For example, Boomers, like younger adults, are far more likely to say the main purpose of marriage is mutual happiness and fulfillment rather than child-raising (70% of Baby Boomers and Millennial young adults say so, compared with 50% of adults ages 65 and older).

When asked whether children face “a lot more challenges” growing up with divorced parents, racially mixed parents or unmarried parents, Baby Boomers and younger adults are less likely to say yes than are adults ages 65 and older.

However, despite the reputation they gained as young adults for favoring alternative lifestyles, Baby Boomers today are less accepting than younger Americans of same-sex couples raising children, unmarried couples living together and other non-traditional arrangements — though they are more tolerant of them than are adults ages 65 and older.

When it comes to divorce, the Baby Boomers are less conservative than younger generations: 66% say divorce is preferable to staying in an unhappy marriage, compared with 54% of younger adults who say so.

Despite differences among generations on these and other matters, a 43%-plurality of Baby Boomers say there is less generational conflict now than in the 1960s and 1970s, when they were coming of age.

Personal Finances and Economic Views

Economically, Boomers are the most likely among all age groups to say they lost money on investments since the Great Recession began. Baby Boomers also are the most likely (57%) to say their household finances have worsened. And a higher share of Boomers than older Americans (but not younger ones) say they have cut spending in the past year.

Among those Baby Boomers ages 50 to 61 who are approaching the end of their working years, six-in-ten say they may have to postpone retirement. According to employment statistics, the older workforce is growing more rapidly than the younger workforce.

Technology and News

In their use of technology, the youngest Baby Boomers (ages 45-55) are nearly as likely to be online (and to have a home broadband connection) as younger adults, and the oldest Boomers (ages 56-64) are notably more likely to be online than adults ages 65 and older.

Nearly two-thirds of Boomers say they follow the news most or all of the time, a higher share than among younger adults.

Religion

By standard measures such as the share who pray daily or frequency of attending religious services, Baby Boomers are less religious than adults ages 65 and older but more religious than adults in younger generations.

Among Baby Boomers, 43% say they are a “strong” member of their religion, a higher share than among younger adults and a lower share than among older ones. Four-in-ten say they attend religious services at least once a week. Conversely, 13% say they have no religious affiliation, less than younger adults but more than older adults.

Baby Boomers: Explore Pew Research Surveys and Reports

Below are hyperlinks to Pew Research Center publications from recent years that include data specifically about Baby Boomers. In some cases, they include data on adults ages 50 to 64, a range that includes most but not all Baby Boomers. In other cases, the research breaks the Baby Boomer generation into younger and older age groups.

Social Behaviors and Values

• The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families: Survey of attitudes on whether marriage is becoming obsolete; single mothers, same-sex couples and other non-traditional arrangements; importance of family; what’s best for children.
• The Return of the Multi-Generational Family Household: Share living in multi-generational households.
• Forty Years After Woodstock, A Gentler Generation Gap: Views on the generation gap, musical preferences, knowledge about Woodstock festival.
• Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality: Views by age group on what constitutes old age and the signs of old age; do you feel younger or older than your real age; has life turned out better or worse than expected; happiness.
• As Marriage and Parenthood Drift Apart, Public Is Concerned about Social Impact: Views about divorce, civil unions, premarital sex, purpose and importance of marriage, children and marriage; profile of parents and divorced adults.
• Public Support for Legalizing Medical Marijuana: Support for legalization of medical marijuana is as high among Boomers as among younger adults, and higher than among older adults.

Economy and Personal Finances

• How the Great Recession Has Changed Life in America: Impact of recession on current finances, financial behavior and employment; views on personal financial future and national economy’s future.
• Most Middle-Aged Adults are Rethinking Retirement Plans: Impact of recession on retirement plans of adults ages 50 to 64, which includes most Baby Boomers.
• Different Age Groups, Different Recessions: Recession-related changes in spending and behavior, investment losses, investment confidence.
• Luxury or Necessity: How the generations differ on what is a luxury or necessity, including such possessions as cell phones and televisions.
• Inside the Middle Class: Views on personal finances, class, quality of life, comparisons with past and projection into future, personal financial problems, priorities in life, job satisfaction.

Miscellaneous

• Millennials: Comparison of attitudes by generation on a wide variety of topics, including personal values, technology use, media consumption, everyday life activities, religion, social and political values. A related interactive graphic compares the demographics of today’s Millennials (ages 18-28) with Boomers and two older generations when they were the same ages the Millennials are now.
• Blacks Upbeat about Black Progress, Prospects: Views of black Americans (by age group) on satisfaction, racial progress and values. Views on intermarriage, race discrimination and trust in police by race/Hispanic groups and age.
• Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home?: Ever-moved or always lived in hometown, years since last move, plans to move, where is your true home, contact with home town, why did you move to your current community or why do you stay in your home town.
• Men or Women: Who’s the Better Leader?: An exploration of public attitudes about gender and leadership; comparisons of ratings of genders on qualities such as honesty and hard work; reasons for scarcity of top female leaders, views on discrimination, equal rights and which gender has the better life.
• Baby Boomers: The Gloomiest Generation: Views on quality of life, standard of living, getting ahead, optimism about the future, including long-term trends and comparisons of older and younger boomers.

The authors thank our Pew Research Center colleagues Daniel Dockterman, Carroll Doherty, Danielle Gewurz, Scott Keeter, Andrew Kohut, Lee Rainie and Wendy Wang for their assistance.

<sub>1. Stone, Arthur A. et al, “A snapshot of the age distribution of psychological well-being in the United States,” PNAS, June 1, 2010, Vol. 107, No. 22.
2. In their assessment of their standard of living versus that of their parents, Boomers are more downbeat than adults both older and younger. In their assessment of their children’s future standard of living, they are more downbeat than younger adults and equally as downbeat as older adults.
3. In some of the figures cited in this report (including this one), survey findings for Baby Boomers reflect findings for adults ages 50 to 64, a group that includes most but not all Baby Boomers.
4. If one uses a broader measure that includes debt the government owes to itself (mainly to the Social Security trust fund), the total national debt is now nearly $14 trillion, or more than 90% of GDP.
5. Results in this paragraph are from an unpublished analysis.</sub>

Overview

The American work force is graying — and not just because the American population itself is graying. Older adults are staying in the labor force longer, and younger adults are staying out of it longer. Both trends took shape about two decades ago. Both have intensified during the current recession. And both are expected to continue after the economy recovers. According to one government estimate, 93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force from 2006 to 2016 will be among workers ages 55 and older.

Demographic and economic factors explain some — but not all — of these changes. Attitudes about work also play an important role — in particular, the growing desire of an aging but healthy population to stay active well into the later years of life.

A new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project finds that a majority (54%) of workers ages 65 and older say the main reason they work is that they want to. Just 17% say the main reason is that they need the paycheck. An additional 27% say they’re motivated by a mix of desire and need.

When asked to identify specific reasons for working, older workers emphasize psychological and social factors: “to feel useful”; “to give myself something to do”; “to be with other people.” Younger and middle-aged workers are much more inclined to cite classic pocketbook considerations: “to support myself and my family”; “to live independently”; “to qualify for retirement benefits”; “to receive health care benefits.”

To be sure, the current state of the economy has influenced nearly everyone’s calculations about work to some extent. But the recession appears to be having a very different impact, depending on age — keeping older adults in the labor force and younger ones out of it.

According to the Pew Research survey, nearly four-in-ten adults who are working past the median retirement age of 62 say they have delayed their retirement because of the recession. Among workers ages 50 to 61, fully 63% say they might have to push back their expected retirement date because of current economic conditions.

All of these survey findings are consistent with a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data that show that the labor force participation rate of older adults, which declined from 1950 until the middle of the 1980s, has been rising ever since. This trend has accelerated during this decade, especially in the current recession.

At the other end of the age spectrum, census data show that in the current decade, a rising share of Americans ages 16 to 24 are in school and a declining share are in the labor force — 57% today versus 66% in 2000.

The Pew Research survey identifies two factors that help explain these changing patterns among the young. First, a growing share of the public says that a person needs a college education to get ahead in life; about three-quarters (73%) of the public feels this way now, up from about half (49%) in 1978. Second, younger adults (like all adults) are being hit hard by the recession, and some may have become discouraged and dropped out of the labor market.

Overall, more than four-in-ten nonworking people ages 16 to 24 say they’ve looked for work but can’t find anything.

Gender Shifts

Age is not the only demographic characteristic of the work force that’s changing. There are also new developments on the gender front — but here, the most compelling story of the decade is not the presence of change but the absence of change.

After marching steadily upward for five decades, the labor force participation rate of women has essentially flattened out. It now stands at 59%, slightly below the 60% peak it reached in 2000 at the end of a period of robust economic growth, and about 13 percentage points below the current rate for men.

Even in an era of growing gender parity in the workplace, the work/family trade-off continues to be much more complicated for women than for men. The Pew Research survey dramatizes these disparities; it finds that nonworking women are nine times as likely as nonworking men to cite the tug of family responsibility as a key reason for not having a job. The survey also finds that only a small share of the public — 12% — thinks the ideal situation for a mother of young children is to work full time outside the home.

As for men, their labor force participation rate has declined in this decade — just as it has every decade since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping such records in 1948. As of June 2009, it stood at 72%, the lowest level in modern history. The current economic downturn has hit men harder than women, with men suffering about two-thirds of all recession-related job losses. As often happens in a recession, a portion of these newly unemployed workers have become discouraged about finding jobs and have dropped out of the labor force altogether.

Other Findings

This report is based on a Pew Research Center analysis of long-term trends in survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau as well as on Pew Research’s own survey of a representative national sample of 1,815 people ages 16 and older conducted from July 20 to Aug. 2, 2009. Among its other key findings:

• Security trumps salary. By a ratio of nearly two-to-one, survey respondents say they would prefer a job that offers better security (59%) over one that offers higher pay (33%) but less stability. It’s not the recession that drives this preference. A similar question asked by the General Social Survey in 1989 (when the economy was in the midst of an expansion) produced a similar result.
• Despite tough times, job satisfaction remains high. Even in the face of widespread layoffs, pay freezes and involuntary furloughs, nine-in-ten employed adults say they are either completely (30%) or mostly (60%) satisfied with their job. In recent decades, levels of job satisfaction have tended to remain stable through good times and bad.
• Older workers are the happiest workers. Some 54% of workers ages 65 and older say they are “completely satisfied” with their job, compared with just 29% of workers ages 16 to 64. The explanation lies in figures cited above — a high percentage of these workers are working because they want to, not because they need to.
• Retirement is not always voluntary. Only about half (51%) of all current retirees say they retired because they wanted to. About a third (32%) say they had to retire for health or other reasons, and about one-in-ten (9%) say their employer forced them to retire.
• Even so, retirement gets high marks. More than half of all retirees (57%) say their retirement has turned out to be very satisfying; an additional 23% say it has been fairly satisfying. Only about one-in-six describe retirement as not too (10%) or not at all (6%) satisfying.
• The public is skeptical about full-time working moms. Just 14% of men and 10% of women say that a full-time job is the “ideal” situation for a woman who has a young child. A plurality of the public (44%) say a part-time job is ideal for such a mother, while a sizable minority (38%) say the ideal situation is for her not to work outside the home at all.
• Most working moms would rather have a part-time job. Among mothers of young children who have a full-time job outside the home, six-in-ten (61%) say they would prefer to work part time. By contrast, just 19% of fathers who have a full-time job and a young child say they would prefer to work part time.

Continue reading the full report at pewsocialtrends.org.

Overview

Forty years after the Woodstock music festival glorified and exacerbated the generational fractures in American life, the public today says there are big differences between younger and older adults in their values, use of technology, work ethic, and respect and tolerance for others.

But this modern generation gap is a much more subdued affair than the one that raged in the 1960s, for relatively few Americans of any age see it as a source of conflict — either in society at large or in their own families.

Moreover, there’s now broad agreement across the generations about one realm of American culture that had been an intense battlefield in the 1960s: the music.

In the four decades since Woodstock, rock and roll has made the journey from the defiant soundtrack of the counterculture to the most popular music in the land, according to a nationwide telephone survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project conducted from July 20 through Aug. 2 among a nationally representative sample of 1,815 people ages 16 and older.

Two-thirds of respondents say they listen to rock often (35%) or sometimes (30%), placing it ahead of the six other musical genres tested in the survey: country, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, classical, jazz and salsa.

Back in 1966, a national survey¹ found that rock and roll was by far the most unpopular music in the country. Nearly half of adults (44%) said they disliked it, and only 4% said it was their favorite kind of music.

Today, the lone holdouts from rock’s broad fan base are older adults. But for every age group below age 65, rock is at the top of the charts.

One goal of this latest Pew Research survey was to probe more deeply into a finding from a Pew Research survey conducted earlier this year that showed that 79% of Americans say there are major differences now in the point of view of younger and older adults. Forty years ago, in an era of far more overt conflict between the generations than there is now, a slightly smaller share (74%) of the public said yes to the same question.²

What could explain the similarities in the two numbers in the face of such differences in the two eras?

This latest survey appears to solve the mystery. Yes, there are big differences between young and old today in their values, attitudes and behaviors, but no, these differences haven’t created conflicts between the generations. To borrow a phrase, the generations appear to have found a way to disagree without being disagreeable.

Moreover, where perceived generational differences exist today about moral values, work ethic and respect for others, today’s young adults — by heavy margins — believe that these differences have arisen because their generation hasn’t lived up to standards set by older adults.

Some key findings from the survey:

• Only about a quarter of the public (26%) says there are strong conflicts these days between young people and older people. By contrast, much higher shares of the public see strong conflicts today between immigrants and the native born (55%); between rich and poor (47%); and between blacks and whites (39%).
• Despite this spirit of generational rapprochement, overwhelming shares of the public say the young and old are different in many aspects of their lives, including in the way they use new technology (87% say very or somewhat different); their taste in music (86%); their work ethic (80%); their moral values (80%); the respect they show others (78%); their political views (74%); their attitudes toward different races and groups (70%); and their religious beliefs (68%).
• By lopsided margins, the public says that older adults are superior to younger adults when it comes to their moral values, work ethic and respect for others. Even younger adults share in these assessments. The only exception to this pattern has to do with attitudes toward people of difference races. Here, a plurality of the public says that younger adults have the upper hand.
• Just as people don’t see much generational conflict today in society at large, they don’t see much generational conflict in their own families — at least not as much as there had been a generation ago. Only 10% of parents of older children say they often have major disagreements with a teenage or young adult child. By contrast, nearly twice as many adult respondents (19%) say that when they themselves were in their late teens and early 20s, they often had major disagreements with their parents.
• Seven-in-ten respondents in our survey were able to correctly identify what Woodstock was, but among respondents ages 16 to 24, only about half could.
• Descriptions of Woodstock offered by survey respondents serve as a reminder of the passions and polarization of the times. For some, it was “a hippie drug-fest”; “a total moral mess”; “wild kids having sex.” For others, it was “a love-in”; “a celebration of freedom and new ideas”; “a peace festival that was supposed to bring unity and togetherness.”

Continue reading the full report, including a look at the popularity of iconic musical performers by generation, at pewsocialtrends.org.

<sub>1. Louis Harris and Associates survey of 1,179 registered voters ages 21 and older, August 1966.
2. Gallup Poll, 1969.</sub>

In the midst of a recession that has taken a heavy toll on many nest eggs, just over half of all working adults ages 50 to 64 say they may delay their retirement — and another 16% say they never expect to stop working, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project.

Overall, 37% of full-time employed adults of all ages say they have thought in the past year about postponing their eventual retirement. This proportion swells to 52% among fulltime workers ages 50 to 64. Members of this so-called “Threshold Generation” are twice as likely as younger workers to say they never plan to retire (16% vs. 8%).

Moreover, the Thresholders who do plan to retire someday say they plan to keep working, on average, until they are age 66 — when they would be four years older than the age at which current retirees age 65 or older report that they stopped working.

The Pew Research survey also finds that it may not be how much you earn but how much you lost in the investment market meltdown that determines whether you are re-thinking your retirement plans. Among the Threshold Generation as well as among other age groups, higher-income earners are only slightly less likely than lower-income adults to have considered postponing retirement. But regardless of income or age, those who have lost 40% or more of their investment nest eggs are roughly twice as likely as those who haven’t lost money in the market meltdown to say they have thought about delaying their eventual exit from the workforce.

The heightened inclination to delay retirement appears to be driven in part by the current recession, but it is also in sync with longer-term labor market trends. The labor force participation rate of those ages 65 and older has increased from 12.9% in 2000 to 16.8% in 2008.¹ A similar trend is also evident this decade among members of the Threshold Generation.

The Pew Research findings are based on a telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,969 adults conducted from February 23 through March 23, 2009. An earlier report based in part on that survey explored the varied impact of the recession on young, middle-aged and older adults. This new analysis examines in greater depth the impact of the recession on the retirement plans of one particular group: adults ages 50 to 64 who are employed fulltime. Poised at the threshold of retirement, these working Americans have suffered the greatest losses in their nest eggs and worry the most about their financial future.

The Demographics of Delay

Age is not the only demographic factor that helps predict who has been rethinking their retirement plans. Among all age groups, nearly half of all full-time employed women (46%) say they have thought about delaying retirement in the past year, compared with less than a third of all working men (31%). Also, 40% of whites have thought about extending their working lives, compared with 32% of blacks and 34% of Hispanics.

Income matters, too, in whether people are considering delaying retirement — but not as much as one might think. Among those with family incomes of less than $30,000, more than four-in-ten (44%) have thought about postponing their retirement, compared with 37% of those earning $100,000 or more. Similarly, more than a third of those making $30,000 to $50,000 (36%) and $50,000 to $100,000 (38%) have considered working longer as the recession settled in during the past year.

The Threshold Generation

Nothing like hard times in late middle age to focus the mind: In the past year, those on the threshold of retirement have given the most thought to the timing of their departure from the workplace. Among adults ages 50 to 64 who are employed fulltime, slightly more than half (52%) say they have thought about delaying retirement, with women once again the most likely to say so.

Six-in-ten women working full-time in this age group say they have reconsidered when they will retire, compared with slightly less than half of all men (61% vs. 45%), a gender gap consistent with other research that has found women often approach retirement age with fewer economic resources to draw on than do men. But among these late-middle aged adults, there is little difference by income: those with family incomes of $75,000 or more are as likely as those earning less to say they have considered delaying retirement.

Working adults who are closer to the traditional retirement age of 65 are even more likely than younger members of the Threshold Generation to have considered delaying their retirement. Some 68% of those ages 57 to 64 say they have thought about delaying retirement, compared with 44% of those ages 50 to 56.

The Confidence Gap

Working members of the Threshold Generation are the least confident of any age group that they will have enough money to make it through their retirement years. Barely two-in-ten (21%) of those ages 50 to 64 say they are “very confident” that they have enough income and assets to tide them over, compared with 37% of fulltime workers younger than age 30 and 40% of those ages 65 and older.

Most Americans, young or old, say that the recession has made it harder to take care of their financial needs in retirement. But working adults in the Threshold Generation are more inclined than any other age group to feel this way. Among those ages 50 to 64 with fulltime jobs, more than three-quarters (78%) say that the recession has made it harder for them to take care of their financial needs in retirement, compared with 66% of those younger than 50.

Income matters surprisingly little in fueling the recession-driven financial worries of the Threshold Generation. Some 69% of those with family incomes under $30,000 as well as 76% of those with incomes of $100,000 or more say the recession will make it harder to take care of their financial needs once they retire.

Similarly, there is little difference by gender, by levels of education or by race, suggesting that these concerns are broadly felt by many adults nearing the end of their working lives.

Investment Losses and Retirement Plans

The worries of the Threshold Generation are rooted in reality: Among all adults, it is the Threshold Generation that has seen the value of their investments decline the most in the past year. About three-quarters of adults ages 50 to 64 say they lost money in mutual funds, individual stocks or retirement accounts such as a 401(k)s, compared with barely half of those younger than age 50 (76% vs. 54%).

These losses appear to have helped trigger some rethinking about the timing of retirement. Working members of the Threshold Generation who lost money on investments are more likely than those who didn’t suffer losses to say they’ve considered delaying retirement (54% vs. 45%). And they’re more likely to have considered taking this step than are adults below the age of 50 who lost money in the market (54% vs. 34%).

Investment losses also impact financial confidence. More than eight-in-ten (82%) working members of the Threshold Generation who lost money in the past year say the recession will make it harder for them to meet their financial needs in retirement, compared with 66% of those ages 18 to 49.

Size matters, the survey also found. Among all adults employed fulltime, those who lost 40% or more of their investment nest eggs are twice as likely as those who lost nothing to say they have thought about delaying their exit from the workforce (59% vs. 29%). While the sample size is too small to draw firm conclusions, the pattern is roughly the same for employed members of the Threshold Generation: Those who lost more than 20% are about twice as likely to say they have considered delaying retirement as are those who sustained smaller setbacks or did not lose money.

_{1. Changes in Social Security legislation along with the transition from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pension plans have in recent years increased incentives to work at older ages. For more detail, see Steven Hipple and Abraham Mosisa, “Trends in Labor Force Participation in the United States,” Monthly Labor Review (October 2006): 35-57. The labor force participation rate is the share of the working-age population that is either employed or actively looking for work. Data on labor force participation are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).}