No Retirement? No Problem: Rethinking Workforce Planning

“Watch out when all the baby boomers all retire at once.” This was the prevailing workforce sentiment during most of my time in Michigan state government.

The fear: a massive “brain drain” of government experts was imminent, especially after staff no longer received a “defined benefit” retirement, which requires a set number of years for eligibility.

The conventional wisdom was, and still is for many, that younger workers prefer private-sector work and older workers leaving government (right about now, in 2025) will cause a loss of knowledge and experience in critical government business processes that will lead to serious issues like cybersecurity incidents, data loss and productivity hits.

This 2022 article, “Report: Local and state governments are facing a retention crisis; the worst could be yet to come,” articulates this perspective well:

“‘Seven of the ten positions most identified as hard to fill had fewer than 10 percent of respondents reporting that in 2015,’ the report says, ‘with engineering, policing and information technology in the range of 12-16 percent. While the Great Resignation had an impact on these positions, the share considering each of those ten hard to fill had at least doubled by 2019. …’

“The worst of it could be yet to come: 53 percent of respondents reported employees are accelerating their retirement plans, with about half the share of baby boomers working in the public sector having retired already. Reflecting this concerning trend, 41 percent of respondents say they’re still bracing for the biggest impact, while 22 percent said it’s happening now—up from 17 percent who responded to the same question in 2021.”

WHY DISCUSS GOVERNMENT RETIREMENTS NOW?

On Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, I was surprised by a top LinkedIn news story that boldly proclaimed: “The new retirement — no retirement!”

The story offers plenty of statistics, trends and even testimonials from people who “unretired.” Here’s an example:

“Jeanne Bellew was ready to kick off her retirement in 2021 at age 58. After closing out her consulting career, she was eager to see the world. But after boarding her first flight, she came to a realization — she didn’t necessarily want to retire, she wanted to reboot.

“Now, at 63, she’s a digital nomad living abroad and working for herself by coaching up other baby boomers on digital freelancing. ‘Transitioning from a traditional career to earning online was one of my most freeing and rewarding decisions,’ she shared with LinkedIn News. ‘I wanted to travel, but still wanted to make money and stay purposeful.’

“And Bellew isn’t alone. A growing number of baby boomers aren’t chasing a typical third act, they’re redesigning it. That can look like putting off retirement or reneging on it altogether. On LinkedIn, nearly 1 in 10 baby boomers in the U.S. who marked themselves as retired on their profiles also listed an end date, indicating they returned to the workforce.”

When I first read this, I was, frankly, stunned. I had never even thought of “retirement having an end date,” unless that end date was “meeting my maker.” Experts say economic pressures and a sense of purpose contribute to shifting ideas around retirement. See this chart to see the unretirement trends.

DIGGING DEEPER ON TRENDS

This CNBC story dives even deeper into what people should consider before retiring:

“Citing data from the Federal Reserve, a separate report by wealth management firm T. Rowe Price said 2.4 million Americans retired during the Covid pandemic. About 1.5 million of those retirees had gone back to work by March 2022.

“More than half, or 52%, of workers said they plan to work at least part-time in retirement, according to a March report by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. About 80% of respondents who plan to work in retirement or past age 65 said it was due to financial reasons.”

In state and local government, a 2025 workforce report from MissionSquare Research Institute shows a slight change in survey results, but still portends more retirement problems are coming around the corner. In 2025, 46 percent of respondents said the largest wave of retirement will be in the next few years; that’s down from 54 percent in 2023 and 2024. But, “it is clear that HR pros in government still fear a huge wave of retirements is coming that will upend their ability to deliver citizen services.”

RECENT RELATED DEVELOPMENTS

Meanwhile, in the federal government, there are national stories of layoffs and early-outs coming as never before. This July article showed that more than 13,400 feds submitted retirement paperwork in June.

Back in the spring of this year, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that within five years, AI could automate up to 50 percent of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Axios called this a “white-collar bloodbath.” The article goes on to report:

• “AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.
• “Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop ‘sugar-coating’ what’s coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.”

I articulated many of these same job themes in a June blog titled “Will AI Replace You — or Promote You? How to Stay Ahead”:

“We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human impact of layoffs — and what could be at stake with increased innovation.”

A similar message was reported last week when Houston-based ConocoPhillips announced plans to lay off up to 25 percent of its workforce, impacting thousands of jobs.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Pulling this all together, more people than ever are retiring later, unretiring, and/or working part time in retirement for a variety of reasons in all fields. Add to this the uncertainty in the job market for white-collar workers and federal government downsizing (for all ages), and state and local governments have many more opportunities to onboard and keep talent in a variety of fields, including cybersecurity and technology roles.

In addition, I believe that the coming flood of retirements of baby boomers or others leaving state and local government roles may not materialize, or WILL be less severe than previously thought.

What can be done: Governments should consider flexible work requirements that allow retired employees (or those approaching retirement) to fill part-time roles and/or meet seasonal needs.

As these recent retirement and employment trend reports show, offering alternative work situations, including working from home, can help in meeting ever-changing staffing needs.