Many Americans Plan to Continue Working and Never Retire

Updated July 2026

A leisurely retirement is still what most Americans picture for their later years. But a growing share of the workforce doesn’t believe that picture will ever come true for them. Sun Life Financial’s 2011 survey found that 20% of Americans think they’ll never retire, period. That’s a real break from how people thought about work and age just a generation ago, when clocking out for good at 65 was the assumed finish line.

Sun Life runs this survey every year to build its Unretirement Index, which tracks how confident Americans feel about actually being able to stop working someday. The 2011 edition polled 1,499 people between 18 and 66. What it turned up was a steep drop in optimism, and the decline hit younger workers, people decades away from retirement, especially hard.

Which Groups Are Most Pessimistic About Retirement?

Between 2008 and 2011, confidence in retiring by 67 fell fast, and it fell across every age bracket surveyed. Workers aged 62 to 66 told researchers in 2008 that 45% expected to retire by 67. Three years later, that number had sunk to 29%. Younger workers showed the same pattern: 58% of people aged 30 to 39 expected to retire by 67 back in 2008, versus just 41% in 2011.

Behind the numbers sits a lot of financial unease. The Federal Reserve’s 2011 Survey of Consumer Finances showed median household net worth hadn’t budged since 2007, and middle-income families felt it the most. Home values were still climbing out of the 2008 crash. Paychecks weren’t growing much either. Put those together and retirement starts to look less like a plan and more like a fantasy for a lot of people.

Take a 58-year-old in Illinois sitting on a $400,000 401(k). At 67, Social Security would kick in around $1,250 a month, roughly $15,000 a year. That’s nowhere close to the $40,000 or so needed to live modestly in Chicago or even Indianapolis, where housing and medical costs keep climbing. That math is exactly why so many workers see no realistic route to stopping work.

What Do People Expect If They Never Retire?

Among the 20% who said they’ll never retire, 53% plan on working full time indefinitely, and only 6.9% think they’ll earn less after 65. Just under half, 46%, expect to shift into part-time work instead. Retirement, isn’t disappearing as a concept so much as it’s turning into a slow fade rather than a hard stop.

This lines up with what the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found: plenty of workers plan to keep working well past the traditional cutoff, if they ever stop at all. The pattern shows up most among people with thin retirement accounts. Vanguard data put the average 401(k) balance for workers 55 to 64 at just $120,000 in 2011.

Say you’re carrying a 620 credit score, $18,000 in student loans, and you still need to scrape together $5,000 for an emergency fund by 2015. Saving for retirement at the same clip as someone with cleaner credit and less debt just isn’t realistic. Borrowers under 30 had an average debt-to-income ratio of 40% in 2011, which left little room to put anything toward retirement while loan payments ate into every paycheck.

How Has Confidence in Retirement Benefits Changed?

The survey tracked five areas tied to retirement confidence, and every single one slid backward in 2011 versus 2010. Confidence in employer-provided benefits dropped 31.7%. Confidence tied to the broader economy fell 25%. Personal finances slipped 13.9%, health confidence dropped 13.2%, and confidence in government benefits, Social Security and Medicare combined, fell 21.6%.

Belief that Social Security would match what today’s retirees get fell from 22% in 2008 down to 9% in 2011. Medicare told a similar story: 20% in 2008 down to 8% in 2011, a 50% drop in a single year. That kind of collapse points to real doubt about whether federal programs can hold up, especially with healthcare costs climbing and Social Security’s long-term funding under constant scrutiny.

Anyone planning to lean entirely on Social Security should know the average monthly benefit in 2011 sat at $1,250. Most people need roughly $400,000 saved to keep a modest lifestyle going. For someone with only $120,000 banked by 55, that’s a $280,000 shortfall staring back at them.

What Are the Financial Drivers Behind This Shift?

More workers now understand, correctly, that Social Security by itself won’t cover a comfortable retirement. That $1,250 monthly benefit works out to $15,000 a year, which falls short of covering basic costs in most American cities. In New York City or San Francisco, even a bare-bones lifestyle runs past $40,000 annually.

Wages, meanwhile, have barely moved. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found median household income climbed just 3% between 2000 and 2010, adjusted for inflation. Healthcare costs, on the other hand, rose about 11% a year in the early 2010s. Faced with that gap, plenty of workers figure there’s no real alternative besides staying on the job.

Debt piles on top of that. Experian pegged average non-mortgage household debt at $15,300 in 2011. Credit card balances kept climbing, and student loan debt, which had crossed $700 billion nationally, was squeezing entry-level workers hardest. SoFi’s 2011 data showed close to 40% of borrowers under 30 carried a debt-to-income ratio above 40%, which makes consistent retirement saving nearly impossible.

Whether to pay down debt first or start saving is a real tradeoff, and the answer depends on the interest rate. A 16% credit card balance should almost always get paid off before a dollar goes toward retirement. Low-rate debt, under 5%, is a different story: if you’re under 50, prioritizing retirement contributions usually wins out. There’s no single right answer here, just a math problem worth running for your own numbers.

How Do State and Employer Differences Affect Retirement Plans?

Where someone lives shapes these numbers too. In Wyoming and North Dakota, where incomes are relatively high and living costs stay low, 18% of respondents expected to retire by 70. In California and New York, where housing and healthcare eat a bigger share of every paycheck, that figure dropped to 13%. The Employee Benefit Research Institute confirmed that workers in pricier states reported noticeably less confidence overall.

Employers matter just as much. Workers at companies with generous 401(k) matching were twice as likely to expect retirement by 67. Firms like Chase, Google, and IBM, known for strong matching contributions, saw their employees report higher confidence across the board. Smaller employers told a different story: in retail, hospitality, and construction, fewer than 10% of workers even had access to an employer-sponsored plan.

Picture someone working at a small restaurant in Detroit, earning $32,000 a year. There’s likely no 401(k) on offer. With only $2,000 saved by 55, against a $400,000 target, working past 65 stops being optional and becomes the only option left.

What Does the Future Hold for Retirement?

With confidence sitting at record lows, full retirement as a fixed concept may be on its way out. Plenty of workers now treat it as a gradual shift rather than a clean break from the workforce. The Social Security Administration put the average age of first retirement in 2011 at 62, yet only 14% of workers actually said they planned to retire that early.

Working longer isn’t purely about money, either. A good chunk of older Americans genuinely want to keep working. AARP found that 60% of workers aged 55 to 64 said they liked their jobs and had no interest in quitting. That preference shows up in the rise of “bridge jobs,” part-time or freelance work that keeps people engaged without demanding a full schedule.

There’s real risk baked into this trend, though. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an 8.5% unemployment rate among workers 65 and older in 2011, more than double the national rate. Some employers, Southwest Airlines and Target among them, have policies that support older workers staying on. Plenty of others don’t. And for anyone in construction, manufacturing, or trucking, retirement may end up forced by the body rather than chosen by choice.

How to Prepare for a Lifetime of Work?

Anyone expecting to work past traditional retirement age needs an actual plan, not just good intentions. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recommends checking retirement savings progress every year. Vanguard’s 2011 figures put the average 401(k) balance for workers 55 to 64 at $120,000, well under the roughly $400,000 most people need for a modest lifestyle.

Delaying Social Security is worth a hard look too. Waiting until 70 instead of claiming at 62 boosts monthly benefits by 32%. On a $1,250 benefit, that’s an extra $400 a month, more than $48,000 over a lifetime. As a rule of thumb, that tradeoff pays off if you expect to live past 77.

Healthcare costs deserve attention as well. Medicare doesn’t kick in until 65, so anyone retiring earlier needs to cover insurance out of pocket for years. A single-person health plan averaged $16,000 a year in 2011. Without employer coverage, that’s a serious dent in any retirement budget.

None of this advice holds up well for people dealing with serious health problems. Someone managing heart disease or diabetes may simply not be able to keep working into their 70s, no matter how sound the financial logic looks on paper. Medical needs can outpace earning ability fast. For those individuals, early retirement or disability benefits are often the only workable path, even if it means falling short of the savings targets above.

Comparison: Retirement Expectations in 2008 vs. 2011

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of Americans say they will never retire?

According to Sun Life Financial’s 2011 Unretirement Index, 20% of Americans say they will never retire.

How has confidence in retiring by age 67 changed since 2008?

Confidence in retiring by age 67 dropped from 45% in 2008 to 29% in 2011, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Why are workers less confident in Social Security?

Workers believe future benefits will be lower. Confidence in receiving Social Security benefits comparable to today’s retirees fell from 22% in 2008 to 9% in 2011, per EBRI.

What percentage of workers expect to work for pay in retirement?

74% of workers in the 2011 EBRI survey said they plan to work for pay in retirement, up from 70% in 2010.

How do retirement expectations vary by state?

In high-cost states like New York and California, fewer workers expect to retire by age 70, 13%, compared to 18% in lower-cost states like Wyoming and North Dakota.

What is the average 401(k) balance for workers aged 55–64?

In 2011, the average 401(k) balance for workers aged 55–64 was $120,000, according to Vanguard.

How does debt affect retirement planning?

Experian data from 2011 shows the average American household carried $15,300 in non-mortgage debt. Student loan and credit card debt can reduce available savings for retirement.

What is the impact of delaying Social Security benefits?

Delaying benefits until age 70 increases monthly payments by 32% compared to claiming at 62, adding over $48,000 in lifetime income.

How does health insurance affect retirement plans?

The average cost of a single-person health plan in 2011 was $16,000 annually. Workers without employer coverage must budget for this expense, reducing retirement savings.

Are retirement savings sufficient for most Americans?

No. The average 401(k) balance is too low. Most workers need at least $400,000 to maintain a modest lifestyle in retirement.