The Best Life

For the nearly 7 million experienced people age 65 and older who are still in the labor force, jobless rates have consistently been lower than for all workers. That's scant comfort if you're having trouble finding a job, or finding a job that pays you what you're worth. What's become painfully clear in this jobless recovery is that keeping a job is vital and that job-hopping is a thing of the past for most people. So, be thankful if you've got a job.

[See America's Best Affordable Places to Retire.]

To help provide a clearer picture of where the jobs are for older employees, by occupation, U.S. News gathered detailed information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is public information but the BLS doesn't publish it, and it differs a bit from what you're used to seeing. For example, the national jobless rate in October was 10.2 percent. But the rate here is only 8.8 percent. That's because this unpublished data is not seasonally adjusted. The other primary difference, according to a BLS economist, is that the 10.2 figure includes people with no prior work experience and those who had just left military duty to look for work. The table below includes only people with prior work experience. That makes sense in looking at the job outlook for older employees, because virtually all of us have held jobs in the past.

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Making a home suitable for older occupants is becoming a mainstream part of the home remodeling business. Growing numbers of seniors want to remain in their homes as they age, and attractive design solutions for aging in place projects have evolved. Making such modifications not only helps current occupants but may broaden the market for future buyers when the home is placed on the market.

[Slide Show: Design Solutions for Aging Homeowners.]

Illustrating this trend, about 3,000 home remodeling and repair contractors have taken a three-day training course to become Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists. The CAPS program was begun by the National Association. of Home Builders and AARP. Therese Ford Crahan, executive director of NAHB's Remodelers Council, describes the sensitivity training that contractors must take as part of the program. "The remodelers are required to put a tennis ball in their nonwriting hand, put that hand in a sock, and then try and write a check," she says, simulating challenges that many people with arthritis face. "Next, we put them in a wheelchair" and they have to maneuver around. Then, "we put sunglasses on them and cover the lenses with Vaseline and then make them try to get around. . . . It's just an eye-opener for remodelers," she says. "They just don't understand . . . until they've been there."

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If you're nearing retirement or are considering relocating to a different state any time in the next several years, you need to do some careful thinking about how the recession and housing downturn have affected the finances of different states. The National Governors Association says it will take a decade for states to recover. Many states have had little choice but to raise taxes and fees in the teeth of the recession, and further increases are likely. Even so, public services will decrease, especially after one-time funds from the federal stimulus program stop flowing to the states.

[See Best Affordable Places to Retire.]

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Like warnings from the boy who cried wolf, pleas to some 46 million older consumers to carefully review their Medicare insurance risk are falling on deaf ears. After all, this advice is given every year as we approach the annual open enrollment period for Medicare, November 15 to December 31. But this year, the stakes are very high. Insurers have substantially cut back choices in Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans and have generally raised premiums in the process. They are responding to continued inflation in healthcare costs and government rules that could reduce the profitability of their Medicare policies.

[See Your Guide to Maximizing Medicare.]

Nearly 11 million people use Medicare Advantage (MA) policies for their Medicare coverage, and most of them choose MA policies that include prescription drug coverage. Doing nothing about your MA policy is always an option, but it will be an expensive choice in 2010. The Kaiser Family Foundation has reviewed 2010 MA plans and says the average premium for people who keep their current coverage will rise by roughly a third—to $48 per month, up from $36 this year. That's on top of the $96.40 that most people pay every month for basic Medicare coverage. For higher-income Medicare beneficiaries, however, basic Medicare premiums in 2010 are set to rise by 15 percent. Kaiser says that monthly average premiums for Part D prescription coverage will rise 11 percent to $38.94 but notes that rates vary greatly—from $8.80 to $120.20—depending on plans and where beneficiaries live.

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