Industry News

Baby Boomers Create a New Way to Retire

According to a study conducted for Merrill Lynch by Harris Interactive in collaboration with Age Wave, baby boomers are not interested in traditional retirement lifestyles. They are looking, instead, for ways to integrate work and play thereby creating a new model of retirement living.

"While many baby boomers need to continue working well past retirement age," said Amy Murphy, director of Corporate and Community Services (CCS) for Joliet Junior College (JJC), "there are many more who want to continue working. They just don't want to work the same schedule or the same job."

The retirement study agrees. When probed about their ideal work arrangement, most participants in the study (42 percent) preferred to work part-time so they could "cycle" between periods of work and leisure. Only 17 percent indicated that they never wanted to work for pay again.

"Here at JJC, we offer baby boomers many options for obtaining new full- or part-time careers," said Murphy. "We have programs in sleep technology, home inspection, pharmacy tech, real estate sales, wedding photography, and more. We also offer classes in computers, writing, art and cooking."

To read more about this study, go to http://www.ml.com/index.asp?id=7695_7696_8149_46028_46503_46635.

For more information about JJC programs, call Amy Murphy at (815) 280-1418, or e-mail amurphy@jjc.edu.

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