In this week's Booming Forward sponsored by Optum, more than 3 million people decided to retire during the pandemic.
But there's one industry that's encouraging seniors across the country to return to the workforce.
That includes Tudi Toughill. She's a caregiver, a job she fell into after caring for her own aging mom.
When her mom passed, Tudi wanted to help other families like hers. She was retired, but knew this was her reason to come back to work.
"Especially after COVID, you know, it's bad enough that we were separated, you couldn't be with people, and it really can isolate you. So I'm glad being in this and being out and aboug," says Tudi.
She's part of a growing trend of retirees coming back into the workforce.
It's something that Kristin Dahlquist who runs caretaking company Home Instead is excited to see.
Just like many companies across the nation right now, Home Instead is struggling to hire employees.
But Kristin is specifically working to hire older Americans through what she likes to call "un-retirement".
"We encourage people who have recently retired or maybe retired in the last decade: come back to work, and offer them meaningful employment, a way to give back to their community," she says.
Kristin says caregivers build a relationship with seniors, and they're not only helping that senior with their cognitive decline and loneliness, but they're also helping themselves.
