45 Great Jobs for Retirees
After the pandemic stirred a wave of early retirements, many folks are deciding that maybe retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. The proportion of retirees heading back into the workforce is at a two-year high, according to The Wall Street Journal, after bottoming out in 2020. And whether it's loneliness, finances, or simply having too much time on your hands, there are plenty of reasons a job, especially part-time, flexible, and remote work, can start to look good to a retiree. Here are some ideal jobs seniors can pursue (with median hourly wages, where applicable, from ZipRecruiter).
Kris Scott also contributed to this report.
Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor
Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn't have to be hard. SmartAsset's free tool matches you with up to three fiduciary financial advisors in your area in five minutes.
Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you're ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Median Hourly Pay: $26.46
Accounting skills and experience don't just go away at retirement. Payroll, tax advice, or as-needed consulting can be done part-time. What's more, it can also be done remotely. Accountemps at Robert Half has guidance for taking on temporary or part-time accounting jobs.
Related: Best Work-From-Home Jobs for Retirees
Median Hourly Pay: $42.83
An adjunct professor is a part-time professor for a college or university, and they make up the majority of instructors in post-secondary higher education institutions. If you have a desire to inform and inspire minds, this could be a great gig for you. It normally requires a bachelor's or master's degree with relevant experience in certain areas. For more info, check out Indeed's article on "How To Become an Adjunct Professor."
Related: 25 Companies With the Most Work-From-Home Jobs Right Now
Median Hourly Pay: $18.20
Retirees can work as administrative assistants or executive secretaries, whose work includes tasks such as organizing, maintaining an appointment schedule, coordinating meetings, filing, document preparation, bookkeeping, and more. While the median pay isn't very high, experience and being good at the job can translate to a much higher salary in this field.
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
There's money to be made buying and selling antique furniture, maybe doing some refurbishing along the way. Knowledge, experience, and contacts can make a difference in profits, and online sales channels such as Craigslist, eBay, and Etsy help move merchandise.
Related: Secrets for Selling Your Stuff on Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
Pottery, needlepoint, painting, sewing, and other arts and crafts shouldn't be confined to gifts for friends and relatives. Consider selling at fairs (particularly around the holidays) and on websites such as Etsy, ArtFire, and others, while working from home or your private studio.
Related: 35 Hobbies That Pay Off in Jobs
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
A long life can mean many interesting stories, and writing can be creatively rewarding. There many options for inexpensive self-publishing these days. Amazon is one of the most high-profile and has a simple how-to guide from its Kindle Direct Publishing group.
Related: 24 Job Hunting Tips for Workers Over 50
Median Hourly Pay: $19.43
If you're a retiree who has always felt proud of your money management skills and has excellent attention to detail, you could be a bookkeeper. Note that computer skills are usually an important part of this job and, while some employers require a bachelor's degree, others require little more than a high school diploma and demonstrated savviness when it comes to managing money.
Related: Well-Paying Jobs That Require a Year or Less of Training or School
Median Hourly Pay: $33.77 (business consultant); $42.19 (management consultant)
Did you reluctantly retire and really miss what you used to do? Consider getting back in the game as a business or management consultant. Retirees can leverage a lifetime of experience by giving advice on business practices or how best to manage employees and resources. Many consultants only take on as many projects and/or clients as they feel they can handle.
Median Hourly Pay: $17.03
Ideally, customer service should be more than just listening to complaints — it can be more like detective work to help resolve issues. Interested? FlexJobs has a list of companies that hire for remote customer service jobs.
Related: 18 Big Companies Letting People Work From Home Long-Term
Median Hourly Pay: $20.62
Driving packages and documents around can be less work than driving people around. One interesting option for part-time delivery is with Amazon, which promises flexible hours and pay rates from $18 to $25 an hour. With more people working and shopping from home, the need for delivery people has grown substantially.
Median Hourly Pay: $12-$13 (docent); $15.29 (tour guide)
Docents and tour guides have many of the same skills and duties. Often employed at museums, a docent or tour guide's job is to be familiar with exhibits, provide information to those interested in learning more, and assist with special events or programs. Jobs of this nature look for applicants with great interpersonal skills and a willingness to learn new things. While some docent positions are volunteer, many are paid.
Median Hourly Pay: $14.38
Dog walking doesn't just pay — it adds fresh air and exercise into the mix. Put up fliers in local coffee shops, community centers, pet stores, and animal shelters to bring in work, or sign up with Rover or Wag!.
For more great retirement tips, please sign up for our free newsletters.
Median Hourly Pay: $25.36
Editing and rewriting other people's work can come from Craigslist, Indeed, or a number of other sources and sites, and involve anything from real estate brochures to restaurant menus or small newspaper ads.
Related: How to Earn Money Working From Your RV
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
Ever wonder where websites that answer questions get their information? Many employ people part-time to find the answers. JustAnswer pays for expertise answering questions in specific areas and hires everyone from "divorce lawyers and dog vets to Maytag techs and Mercedes mechanics."
Median Hourly Pay: $17.11
Florists work with beautiful products all day, make people happy — or at least feel better — and get to use their creativity. It helps if applicants walk in with some knowledge of plants and flowers, innate talent, and customer service and time management skills. For interested retirees, Masterclass offers a 30-day session.
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
For as long as there has been market research, there have been focus groups. These days, many focus groups don't meet physically; the work is done online, making some focus groups little different from online surveys. Focus group sites worth a look include Schlesinger Group, SIS International, and Storyline Strategies.
Related: Entry-Level Jobs You Can Do From Home With No Experience
Median Hourly Pay: $15.57
If tending plants and helping others learn about them is your idea of heaven, consider applying at your local nursery. Go even further and get a master gardener certification in your state and you'll likely be able to make more than the median hourly pay.
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
Uber and Lyft. Rover. TaskRabbit. Shipt. Postmates. The list of gig economy opportunities is long these days. For retirees looking to make a little extra cash, there's never been an easier path forward, often without any special skills or investment required.
Related: 22 Tips for a Successful Side Hustle
Median Hourly Pay: $18.36
Are friends and relatives always coming around for help with odd jobs such as building fences or fixing furniture? Get the certifications, licenses, and insurance described by the Association of Certified Handyman Professionals and start making money off those skills.
Median Hourly Pay: $29.37
Home inspection requires training, and can be tough. Done properly, it may displease the homebuyer, seller, or both. But it also can make a real difference in people's lives at an important moment.
Median Hourly Pay: $23.33
This is a good job for someone with interior decorating skills who can handle tight deadlines and is good at working with others. Home staging typically involves partnering with real estate agents to help them inexpensively redecorate for-sale homes. The Staging Diva has tips for getting started.
Related: New Rules for Buying and Selling a Home During the Pandemic
Median Hourly Pay: $14.93
Some find a zen-like peace in cleaning. Part-time house cleaning can be lucrative, with flexible hours, and work might be just as easily found independently as by visiting websites for housekeeper recruiting such as Care.com.
Median Hourly Pay: $30.87
Offering to take care of people's houses while they are away means often staying somewhere new, but not all placements pay — some people look at housesitting more as a way to travel and save money, since they're not paying rent, rather than make money. Explore the possibilities on sites such as House Sitters America.
Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor
Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn't have to be hard. SmartAsset's free tool matches you with up to three fiduciary financial advisors in your area in five minutes.
Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you're ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Median Hourly Pay: $13.24
To stay close to a profession without the hassle of a full-time job, consider mentoring or career coaching someone just starting in the business. LinkedIn has advice on becoming a career coach.
Related: 22 Essential Remote-Work Tools for Your Business
Median Hourly Pay: $14.11
Love books, quiet spaces, and helping others? Training requirements for this job are generally minimal and job duties involve working the circulation desk to aide in lending and collecting books, periodicals, videotapes, and other materials.
Median Hourly Pay: $24.96
OnlineCollege.org has a guide to get people started teaching online, and the National Education Association has advice on teaching students online. Sites such as Udemy and Teachable allow instructors to create their own courses and earn money based on their success.
Median Hourly Pay: $18.51
Fresh air, scenery, and wildlife — sound like an appealing workplace? Some park ranger jobs require a degree in a related field such as forestry, and often emergency training as well.
Related: 37 Jobs With Flexible Hours and Great Hourly Rates
Median Hourly Pay: $25.61
You don't have to be a ranger to work in a national or state park. You can help oversee a visitors' center, man a gift shop, and more. Many seasonal jobs are available in our nation's parks, too. Find out more at NPS.gov.
Median Hourly Pay: $18.40
Do you have a heart for helping? Patient advocates do just that — listening to patients' problems and concerns and helping them navigate the hospital experience. Job duties include responding to complaints, explaining hospital policies and procedures, providing information on coverage, helping patients find community services, and mediating a concern between you and your medical team.
Median Hourly Pay: $23.51
For people who enjoy cooking and are good at it, a gig as a part-time personal chef may be a good fit. Cooks must be able to accommodate personal needs and tastes and meet deadlines.
Related: 11 Online Cooking Classes to Sharpen Your Skills
Median Hourly Pay: $12.11
Like house-sitting, a lot of pet-sitting opportunities offer a place to stay instead of money. But with so many owners who spoil their pets like children, there is money to be made by building up clientele and courting word-of-mouth referrals, especially.
Related: Must Love Dogs: 14 Unexpected Jobs for Animal Lovers
Median Hourly Pay: $16.07
It's not only university professors with master's degrees who can create and teach college classes. Community adult education centers and community colleges often use people with bachelor's degrees and life experience.
Median Hourly Pay: $37.54
If most of your career has been spent managing projects, don't leave that behind entirely. Stay connected in your industry and offer your services for contract project management work. The website Upwork can help find work.
Related: 19 Essential Items to Keep You Safe and Healthy as You Return to Work
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
Give back with public service. The part-time compensation for serving on a school board or city council counts for more knowing you're doing something worthwhile for the community.
Median Hourly Pay: $20.06
Perhaps you've heard — the U.S. is facing an ever-looming teacher shortage. If you've always wanted to try your hand at teaching public school, now might be the time to get involved.
Median Hourly Pay: $22.31
Sites such as LinkedIn and Monster advertise jobs and find applicants, but there is no substitute for experienced people who know what a company needs. Recent retirees may be in the perfect position to help recruiters and headhunters. PayScale has insight into what it's like to work in recruiting.
Median Hourly Pay: $15.69
For those who understand how things tick, literally as well as figuratively, there's money to be made fixing everything from watches and clocks to lawnmowers and sewing machines. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sees modest growth in the sector through 2024.
Median Hourly Pay: $20.58
Research assistant is a good job for people who love finding and evaluating information. LinkedIn lists thousands of open research assistant positions in towns and cities nationwide in academic and corporate settings. Pay can depend a great deal on qualifications, experience, and sector.
Median Hourly Pay: $16.29
Many school districts across the country are also having a tough time filling school bus driver positions. If you've got the temperment to deal with noise and children, check out the school bus driver positions currently available on ZipRecruiter.
Related: The Top Job Search Sites — and Who Should Use Them
Median Hourly Pay: $19.07
If you've spent another tax season being asked by friends and relatives for help, you probably have the skills and experience to be paid for it. Anyone can be a tax preparer, so long as they have a preparer tax identification number from the Internal Revenue Service.
Median Hourly Pay: $28.90
Writing or speaking another language is a huge asset in many sectors, including tourism, government services, and business services. The BLS shows strong growth for translation through 2024.
Median Hourly Pay: $22.08
There are lots of tutoring services in need of people, including Kaplan, Golden Voice English, and Chegg, with online tutoring being especially in demand now.
Median Hourly Pay: $10.34
Retirees who love the performing arts or sporting events might find that they'd love an ushering job. ZipRecruiter currently has more than 4,500 open usher positions.
Median Hourly Pay: $31.65
If you believe you have the pipes to do voiceover work, such as for audiobooks or training videos, VoiceBunny has advice.
Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor
Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn't have to be hard. SmartAsset's free tool matches you with up to three fiduciary financial advisors in your area in five minutes.
Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you're ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
Have a love of sports, know the rules, and want to encourage young athletes to follow those rules in a sportsmanlike manner? Lots of school districts across the nation are also having a tough time finding youth sports officiants to monitor games. Call your local district to find out if there are any positions open.
Whether you found a job on this list you'd like to look into or not, it can help to have more resources to get started. Here are a number of websites that cater to retired job seekers.
Retirees should also consider signing up at FlexJobs, which offers a number of opportunities for those who need more flexibility in their schedule or want to work from home.
Need more career tips? We have a lot more stories right here.
