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Is the United States ready for an older workforce?

An aging population has transformed the local economy of Cumberland County, Tennessee. What lessons can be learned for the broader economy?
Malena Fisher at the Palace Theatre in Crossville, Tennessee, where retirees are the core customer base.
Maria Hollenhorst/Marketplace

“Retirement’s a wonderful invention — I just love it”

Jan 24, 2025
As part of our new series, “The Age of Work,” Marketplace is exploring the aging U.S. labor force.
John Conrad, one of Cumberland County’s many retired residents on the Soldier’s Beach Trail, which he helped build.
Maria Hollenhorst/Marketplace

America's farmers are getting older

Feb 20, 2024
The average age of farmers is increasing as young aspiring farmers face financial barrier to starting up.

New tool helps evaluate older adults' decision-making ability

May 25, 2022
The system is designed to gauge whether formal psychiatric assessment may be needed.
Geriatricians created the interview for decisional abilities to help social services workers determine whether further evaluation is required.
Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images

As the population ages, the costs of dementia will climb, report finds

From medical costs to the value of unpaid caregiving, dementia is getting more expensive for families.
From medical costs to the value of unpaid caregiving, dementia is getting more expensive for families.
Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese citizens greet new 3-child policy with humor

Jun 21, 2021
Women in China have taken to social media to push back against having one more child.
A father with his son on a low-cost train heading into the Chinese countryside. People in rural China cite the cost of raising a child as a main reason they don't want to have more children.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

Census data shows fewer seniors are living alone

Dec 19, 2019
There's hasn't been in increase in seniors in nursing homes, either.
A new investigation published in The New Yorker detailed what happened at St. Joseph's Home for the Aged, a nursing home in Richmond, Virginia, after it was acquired by a private equity firm in 2021.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Preparing for retirement when you have one child

Dec 5, 2019
"It gets complicated after your parents pass away and you have nobody."
Matias Delacroix/Getty Images

The cartoonist drawing comics about his mother's Alzheimer's

Sep 26, 2019
Ted Rall's new cartoons tackle the isolation and financial stress of family caregiving.
Courtesy of Ted Rall