Why ‘unretired’ seniors are picking up gig work to pay the bills - AP News

A growing number of Americans have “unretired” in recent years. After ending careers that spanned decades, they returned to the workforce due to rising living costs, insufficient retirement savings, and a desire to stay active. Some are finding gig work, or contract jobs, through apps or digital platforms. (AP video: Emily Wang Fujiyama)

PLAINVIEW, New York (AP) — Before Stu Goldberg begins his night shift driving for Uber, he pulls out a notebook to read a handwritten list of reminders. “No tickets. Full stops,” he’d scrawled in the book. “Careful backing up. Watch for pedestrians and bikes.”

With a Ph.D in neuropsychology and decades of experience running his own business, Goldberg, 74, didn’t picture chauffeuring strangers around when he retired. But financially, things didn’t go as planned. So he makes the best of his situation shuttling passengers through New York City at night.

“I like the freedom. I like the flexibility. I like meeting people,” Goldberg said. “I like that most of the time I can get, once or twice a day, a good conversation with somebody.”

Retiree Stu Goldberg prepares to pick up passengers for Uber near Plainview, N.Y., on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emily Wang Fujiyama)

Goldberg is one of a growing number of Americans who have “unretired” in recent years. After concluding decades-long careers at hospitals, universities and corporations, they returned to the workforce due to insufficient retirement savings, rising living costs and a desire to stay active.

Some are finding gig work, or contract jobs, through apps or digital platforms. Delivering people and parcels, taking care of pets or folding other people’s laundry suits them because they can set their own hours and work, or not, when they choose.

“We’re living longer, so people are working longer because they have to fund those extra years,” said Carly Roszkowski, vice president of financial resilience at the nonprofit organization AARP. “And this concept of retirement for most people as like a cliff or a day they’re working towards really isn’t a reality for most.”

This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

Goldberg wanted to teach after winding down his software and telemarketing company. But he needed to earn more money than what the occasional adjunct professor job teaching statistics would pay.

“Uber came up, and it was not a bad choice for me because I was comfortable driving people,” he said. “I felt it could be a good way to make money and keep most of it.”

About 1 in 5 Americans over age 50 who aren’t retired say they have no retirement savings, according to a survey the AARP conducted in January 2025.

Retirees and employment experts say gig work has advantages and downsides, including limited job protections and wages that may be insufficient to cover on-the-job expenses. Here are some factors to consider.

Stay active, but know your limits

Barbara Baratta, 72, retired as a pediatric nurse in 2018. But she got restless after a few years and signed up with the pet care app Rover, which connected her to jobs walking dogs and using her nursing skills to administer medications to cats.

The work keeps her active. “I get my steps in and do hill climbing,” she said.

In a leafy New Jersey suburb, Baratta set out to coax Barley, a mix of pit bull, beagle and shepherd, into the afternoon air with a wind chill pushing the temperature down into the 20s.

“Barley, if you turn this way, the wind will be blowing behind you,” she said gently, leading the dog down a wide street.

Baratta likes the physical nature of dog walking. She ran two half-marathons in the past year but notices that “being older and not having knees that are totally great” makes steep or uneven terrain a challenge even for her. She advises people in her age group to be careful about which pets they agree to walk.