The American workforce isn’t just growing — it’s also graying.

The U.S. private sector was responsible for 74 consecutive months of job growth until this past May, when 40,000 striking Verizon workers were temporarily counted as lost jobs by the Labor Department, skewing that month’s results and snapping the country’s historic streak. And baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964, making them ages 52 to 70 this year — are a major source of that recent surge in manpower.

There are 76.4 million baby boomers in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau, and many of them are working for a living, either by choice or out of necessity. According to a June report from the Pew Research Center, 18.8 percent of Americans ages 65 or older — roughly 9 million people — have either full- or part-time jobs. Those figures are up from 12.8 percent and about 4 million people in 2000, when Pew first started tracking that statistic.

Similarly, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed in 2014 that 56 percent of American men ages 62 to 64 were either working or looking for work, up from 45 percent in 1994. For women in that age group, the rate of workforce participation climbed to 45 percent from 33 percent.

“The fact is that we don’t want to leave the workforce,” said Marc Miller, the founder of the career-development website CareerPivot and the author of “Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for Baby Boomers.”

“During the Great Recession, the long-term unemployed — those out of work for at least 27 weeks — were disproportionately baby boomers. But we want to be able to go back to work. We just need to be given the opportunity. We’re not going to be like our parents and play golf every day. I turned 60 a few months ago, and I have no intention of ever retiring.”

Miller said an increasing number of baby boomers are choosing to work because it helps them stay sharp cognitively and provides an opportunity for social interaction and relationship-building and because the paycheck allows them to enjoy a higher standard of living. But for many baby boomers, delaying retirement isn’t a choice at all.

Paltry savings

The National Institute on Retirement Security reported last year that about two-thirds of households ages 55 to 64 had savings equal to or less than their annual income, while one-third had no savings at all. Similarly, the Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated last year that about 43 percent of baby boomers are not prepared to support themselves and maintain their current standard of living throughout their retirement.

While it seems logical to blame the Great Recession for forcing baby boomers to delay retirement, a number of societal trends have played bigger roles, said Nancy S. Ahlrichs, a business-development consultant with the Indianapolis-based firm FlashPoint and the author of “Igniting Gen B & Gen V: The New Rules of Engagement for Boomers, Veterans, and Other Long-Termers on the Job.” Among these trends is the fact that people today are living longer than their parents did, which means retirement savings have to last longer.

According to a 2014 report from the Census Bureau, the average 65-year-old American man can expect to live another 17.7 years, and for women, that figure is 20.3 years. That’s a gain of about four years over the previous generation of Americans who made it to age 65. And baby boomers are less likely than their parents to have pensions that last until death.

Instead, baby boomers are likely to have 401(k) retirement plans, which often are inadequately funded, Ahlrichs said. According to the annual report by the financial-services provider Vanguard titled “How Americans Save 2016,” the average American worker age 55 to 64 has a 401(k) balance of just $177,805, which is unlikely to adequately fund a long retirement. At a withdrawal rate of 4 percent a year, those retirees can expect less than $10,000 in annual income from their 401(k) accounts over 30 years even when gains in those investments are factored in.

Additionally, boomers are being weighed down by debt much more than their parents were. The University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study found that in 2012, 44 percent of adults 65 or older were in debt, up from 30 percent in 1998, and the median amount they owed was $24,500.

“Boomers generally did not have the same attitude about debt in their younger years that their parents did,” said Ahlrichs. “A large part of their retirement income is going to be devoted to paying off that debt in addition to living expenses. Throughout their adult lives, boomers have carried more debt than any other generation, so it’s not surprising that boomers have some debt going into retirement, which is another motivator to keep on working.”

The nest isn’t empty

Other reasons why boomers are delaying retirement include the need to provide for grandchildren and the fact that parents increasingly have adult children living with them. According to 2010 Census data, 4.9 million American children are being raised solely by their grandparents, up from 2.4 million in 2000.

Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center reported in May that 32.1 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 were living with their parents, largely because of insufficient wages or underemployment. That marked the first time in 130 years of data that more Americans in that age group lived with their parents than with a spouse or partner.

“The great recession hurt every generation, but if you combine it with some other trends facing baby boomers, it really accentuated this need to keep on working,” Ahlrichs said.

All this data points to one simple fact: Many baby boomers are finding that they are a lot farther from retirement than they thought they’d be at this age. A report released in May by the Insured Retirement Institute found that 60 percent of baby boomers now expect to retire at age 65 or older, including 26 percent of boomers who expect to retire at age 70 or older. In 2011, only 17 percent of boomers expected to work into their 70s.

The Pew Research Center found that boomers work in the various sectors of the U.S. economy in broadly similar patterns as the larger workforce with a few notable exceptions. For example, only 3.4 percent of boomers work in the accommodations/food-service sector, compared with 7.1 percent of all workers. Boomers are more likely to be in management or legal and community/social service occupations than the overall workforce and are less likely to be in computer, mathematical and construction-related occupations.

Boomers making
their mark

With so many boomers willing to work, small-business owners such as car wash operators have a wealth of experienced workers to choose from.

Carl Howard, chief operating officer of Autobell Car Wash Inc., which has 73 full-service conveyor operations in the Southeast and employs about 2,800 workers, said the demographics of his workforce haven’t changed much in recent years, though many of his senior staff members, such as district managers and office employees, are electing to work beyond age 65.

“We appreciate having their experience level as our company grows,” Howard said. “Overall, I believe the pros outweigh the cons in hiring boomers. Experienced workers have a high value.”

Larry Johnson, co-author of “Generations, Inc.: From Boomers to Linksters — Managing the Friction Between Generations at Work,” said boomers bring valuable work and life experience to the job that can make them good mentors for younger workers. Additionally, they are more likely to have the solid customer-service and communication skills that are necessary for some positions in car wash operations, such as greeting customers and working the register.

“We tend to have better verbal skills and the ability to make eye contact because we didn’t grow up texting and staring at our smartphones,” he said.

And while it’s true that most boomers are in the twilight of their careers, they tend not to hop from job to job and can usually be counted on to be loyal employees who show up on time and have a solid work ethic, Ahlrichs said. On the downside, she said, they are more likely than younger employees to want good health coverage if they have not yet qualified for Medicare, they may have physical limitations and may be less willing to relocate for a new opportunity within the company.

Howard said companies looking to hire baby boomers should make it known that they value experienced workers by reaching out to their local chamber of commerce and civic groups such as Rotary clubs or church groups. They can also contact their local unemployment office.

Companies also should be willing to offer flexible hours to boomers whenever possible, Johnson said.

“Everyone wants flexible hours, but especially boomers.” He explained, “Retirees usually want to go to work, but not like they did before. They want to be able to visit their grandkids, or they may have more frequent doctor’s appointments. They don’t want to work the same kind of grinding schedule that they used to and fight traffic during rush hour. They don’t want to retire completely because they want to be engaged, and they may need the money, but they don’t want the rat race.”