After 35 years in insurance marketing, the last 20 with Rhode Island-based Amica Mutual Insurance Co. managing multimillion-dollar campaigns, Eduardo Naya tried to retire.
It didn’t last.
“There are only so many trips you can afford to take, even in retirement,” he said about his year-and-a half reprieve.
Though his kids were now adults out of the house, and he had built up an adequate nest egg over a successful career, Naya had an itch to get back to work.
“I upped my ante,” he said. “My life was in order, and I thought it was a good time to retire. But I still felt like there was a hole. I wasn’t taking advantage of everything I’d learned in the marketing world, and I was in a position to give back more than I would take.”
When Naya, 59, got the opportunity last year to join the nonprofit Skills for Rhode Island’s Future, he jumped at the chance, intrigued by its mission of providing employment services to job seekers.
“I loved what they did here. It’s changing lives,” he said. “I felt it was a loss for myself and for someone else if I didn’t take advantage of the years of knowledge I have. It was right up my alley.”
Nina Pande, executive director of Skills for Rhode Island’s Future, hired Naya and says local employers can’t afford to overlook the state’s older workforce. She says older employees are often more open than their younger counterparts to new job experiences and challenges
“He wanted that purposeful career,” she said of Naya. “And I told him he’s going to work harder than he’s ever had.”
[caption id="attachment_463034" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
VALUABLE SKILLS: John Vitko, left, customer service, and George Durfee, assembly, work on the shop floor at VIBCO Inc. in Richmond. CEO Karl Wadensten says he was hiring workers over the age of 65 before there was a worker shortage due to their knowledge and work ethic.
PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS[/caption]
GROWING RELIANCE
The state’s aging population and pandemic-fueled worker shortages that are still challenging some local industries mean Rhode Island employers are becoming increasingly reliant on older workers.
Between 1970 and 2000, older workers made up the smallest segment of the state’s labor force, says Johnson & Wales University professor and economist Quingbin Yang, who tracks labor demographics in Rhode Island.
In 2000, the number of “prime-age workers,” defined as those 35-54, began to drop, he says.
“We are slightly older than the nation,” he said. “The number of younger people entering the workforce is going down. And more younger people are moving out of the state.”
That leaves workers who are past prime age to fill in the gap. In 2022, 39% of the state’s working-age residents were 55 and older, above the national average, according to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training. And the share of the state’s workforce 65 and older doubled between 2003 and 2023.
The DLT estimates that by 2032 those 65 and over will make up 30% of the state’s general population.
Pande says pandemic-fueled early retirements may have stalled the steady growth of older workers in the state’s workforce over the last two decades. But she’s now seeing more older workers again eager to jump back in and more employers looking to take advantage.
She acknowledges, however, that some employers are still hesitant to commit to older workers, fearing they might be more costly to offer insurance to or might demand higher salaries.
“People in hiring roles might automatically look [negatively] at their resume.
“But I think we should be saying, ‘Let’s have a conversation,’ ’’ Pande said.
Karl Wadensten, CEO of Richmond-based manufacturer VIBCO Inc., has long relied on older workers. One-fourth of his staff has been with the company for more than 30 years, he said. The company recently celebrated the retirement of three longtime staffers in their mid-80s.
“And they came here at 60,” he said. “They retired and then worked another 25 years and loved every minute of it. They were the old guys mentoring the younger guys and everybody in between.”
Wadensten likens his company philosophy to the Montessori education method. On-the-job training and collaborative mentorship are more important than someone’s college grade point average, he says.
“I rely on [older workers] a lot. Even before the labor shortage we were hiring people older than 65,” he said. “They have the knowledge and the work ethic.”
[caption id="attachment_463032" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
RELIABLE WORKERS:
Julie Porter, left, export sales and customer service, speaks with Lisa Huftalen, manager of marketing and graphic design, at VIBCO Inc. in Richmond. The industrial vibrator manufacturer has long relied on older workers, with one-fourth of the staff having been with the company for more than 30 years.
PBN PHOTO/
TRACY JENKINS[/caption]
VIBCO programmer and data manager Don Smith, 66, agrees.
“It’s a special place, where you know you can work later on in life,” he said.
Wadensten also serves on the board of the R.I. Commerce Corp. As happy as he is with his older employees, he does worry about the long-term ramifications of the state’s aging workforce.
“What happens when this segment permanently exits the labor pool? As the population ages, you are going to have bigger and bigger voids,” he said. “What’s going to happen when these people age out?”
DLT Director Matthew Weldon says the agency is constantly hearing from employers in multiple industries, including manufacturing and commercial fishing, struggling to “find talent,” despite the improving economy.
“It’s hard to get younger people to take jobs. Particularly jobs where people need to interact with other people,” he said.
Weldon’s father found a late-career change opportunity to work as a direct care provider, which he did for 15 years, despite the meager pay.
“He really flourished during that opportunity,” he said. “He told me it was the most rewarding experience of his professional life.
“Too often, we look past a large section of our workforce and don’t look at them when these opportunities become available,” he said. “Their motives may be different. They are not looking to grow but to share expertise and experience. Employers must tap into that.”
Weldon pointed to the Senior Community Service Employment Program run by the U.S. Department of Labor. Low-income job seekers 55 years old or above gain on-site experience for up to 48 months that is tailored to their skill sets and employment goals. But the state could use more retraining for older workers, he says.
“We don’t do enough in this space,” he said.
Weldon added that fostering mentorship and these “symbiotic relationships” in the workplace is more important than people realize, particularly in high-stress and potentially dangerous jobs.
“If you want to be a commercial fisherman, we can’t train you how to handle waking up 70 miles offshore,” he said. “When [older workers] act as mentors, they can coach younger people.”
EAGER TO WORK
Before joining Bally’s Corp.’s Twin River Casino in Lincoln as a security guard 17 years ago, keeping watch over the “bill breaker” cash machines, Judy Mirando’s work experience included stints as a schoolteacher, restaurant owner, and Providence police officer specializing in undercover stings.
She keeps at it partly for longevity, walking the casino floor between 3 and 5 miles per shift.
“I love going to work. I get to meet a variety of people and it keeps my mind young,” she said. “So many of my friends retired and they just got old sitting around watching TV. Psychologically, working keeps me in a better frame of mind.”
Mirando could call it quits tomorrow but has grown to covet the mentorship role she’s carved out among younger co-workers, many of whom arrive inexperienced and with unrealistic expectations of what full-time employment entails.
“I think I can impart a lot of knowledge,” she said. “I try to instill in them just because you had many things handed to you, that is not how life is.”
At 76, she finds the casino floor exciting. Whatever staves off the “hum drum” of card playing and strolls on the beach that fill the days of her retired friends.
It also allows her to dust off personal skills not taught in most job orientations, such as the importance to observe and recall faces, which for a police officer could be the deciding factor over whether you make it home at the end of your shift.
“I always look forward to another challenge,” she said. “I love wondering what the next day will bring.”
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GIVING BACK: Corporate trainer Chip Leakas says many of his clients who are over the age of 65 don’t need to work but feel their previous successes afforded them an opportunity to give back.
PBN PHOTO/DAVID HANSEN[/caption]
Corporate trainer and self-styled “LinkedIn professor” Chip Leakas, 66, launched his most recent career in 2018, instructing clients how to earn in the digital-first economy. He saw a rush of retired and semi-retired people during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
Since 2022, the number of older people seeking his services has skyrocketed, Leakas says, with more than one-fourth now 65 years or older, many looking for “career 2.0.”
“The oldest was 85,” he said. “They want to leverage their 40 or 50 years of experience.”
Leakas says many of these people don’t need to work but feel their previous successes afforded them an opportunity, and responsibility, to give back without breaking their bank.
“There’s a significant part of the community that is looking to blaze a path of altruism,” he said. “A lot of them were wealthy and didn’t need the money. They simply enjoyed their careers and wanted to extend them.”
Bob Dumais, 67, retired in 2016 from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island after 20 years but wasn’t ready to slow down. Sensing an opportunity while searching for his next career, he knew the complications surrounding the retirement process – from Medicare to Social Security – provided a niche market, so he founded the Warwick-based consultation firm Legacy Benefit Advisors.
“When I was younger, I always thought the pot at the end of the rainbow was retirement. And now that I can retire, I don’t want to,” he said. “I feel like I can still bring value to people. I thought it would be a fun thing to do that would keep me busy and make a little bit of money. So, I always have something new on my plate.”
Dumais recalls the advice of his primary care doctor, who is almost 80 years old.
“Work is not a chore for him. And that is how I feel,” he said. “He tells me, ‘You rest, you rust. So, just keep moving.’ ”
That’s what Joseph Manzi, 61, a full-time electrician who joined the IBEW Local 99 labor union 40 years ago, plans to do.
He could retire tomorrow, supported by a generous pension secured over a career that brought him from the construction of the Jamestown Bridge to his current role in the electrical department at the R.I. Convention Center.
“My wife is three years older than me so I’m sure she’d be fine with me retiring,” he said. “But it’s a great feeling when you wake up in the morning and say, ‘I’m going to work because I want to work.’ ”
But Manzi has many nonunion friends still grinding in the trades who don’t have the same luxury.
“There is no guarantee that they’re going to have a job tomorrow. They tell me they are going to work until they are 75,” he said.
[caption id="attachment_463036" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
NOT READY TO RETIRE
U.S. and Rhode Island labor statistics show that not only are people 65 and older participating more in the workforce,
but a higher percentage of them are rejecting retirement even as the population of people in that age group grows. / Source: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
State Data: BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics program / National data: BLS Current Population Survey[/caption]
‘FORK IN THE ROAD’
Even before the pandemic, it was becoming more challenging for older workers to leave and reenter the workforce, even temporarily. Naya believes a two-year break is now equivalent to being out for a decade.
“When COVID came, we all had to be resourceful and change the way we did things,” he said.
Most workers will face a “fork in the road” as they age, he said.
“Maybe they are [still working] because they don’t want to sit at home or walk the dog all day. Or maybe these older workers are doing it because they have to. Retiring may not be a choice. We all have bills to pay,” he added.
Whatever the reasons, Naya sees a silver lining in these changing demographics, which can ensure more of the knowledge and expertise that used to be underutilized in retirement – or relocated to Florida – stays in Rhode Island.
“There is a lot these people have to offer. When they leave an organization, that skill set goes with them,” he said. “I’m probably busier now than I have ever been, which is a good thing.”
