Careers: Finding a Job When You're Over 50

Retirement is so overrated.

Study after study shows that the current generation of 50somethings wants to keep working, and for the majority who are doing work requiring more brain than brawn, it won't hurt. "You're not mining coal; you can handle it," says Robert Skladany, an expert in older-workforce issues and vice president of research at retirementjobs.com.

But wanting a job and finding one are two different things. Here are some tips for finding the job that will take you through the early years of your "retirement."

• Look elsewhere. Don't expect to keep the job you've got. In the early 1980s, some 70 percent of full-time workers over 58 were at the same company that had employed them when they were 50. Today that number hovers at just under 50 percent, according to Boston University's Center for Retirement Research. And that's a two-way street; many older workers don't want the same job they've already had for decades. They want something easier, and different.

• Go where you ' re wanted. For every employer that's axing the older workers, there's another that wants them. The AARP lists them every year (aarp.org/ money/work/best_employers/Best_ Employer_Winners/); the latest list is health-care and university-heavy, and is topped by Cornell University, Scripps Health and SC Johnson & Son.

• Look at industries with labor shortages. These are the top jobs for retirees now, according to Skladany: nurse, health-care technician, health-care administrator (nonmedical), teaching assistant, temporary contract worker, retail sales and management, accounting and tax preparation, bank tellers and truck/bus/delivery drivers.

• Hunt online. Several specialty job sites focus on older workers. Check out retirementjobs.com, seniors4hire .com, workforce50.com, dinosaur exchange.com, seniorjobbank.com and jobs.aarp.org.

• When all else fails, consult or temp. If you've already got an area of expertise and the temperament to be self-employed, you can probably make more and stay happy by hiring yourself out on a temporary or project basis to people in the industry you just left. If you don't want to scare up your own clients, do temporary work, says Skladany. With workforces shrinking, there's an enormous demand now for office workers at all levels of expertise. That way, you'll earn money while you wait, and be conveniently located—right in the office—when jobs open up.