More older Australians are coming out of retirement and re-entering the workforce in what has been dubbed ‘the great unretirement’.

John Scott retired at the end of 2021 after 50 years working in the insurance industry. He loved his clients but, following the education changes brought in by the banking royal commission, he decided he was “happy to walk away” from work and sell his business.

“For six to 12 months I thought ‘This is great. I can fiddle at home and don’t have to go check emails or listen to the phones’,” John, who is now 68 years old, told Yahoo Finance.

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But, as more time passed, John said he began to feel stagnant and started thinking to himself: “Is this it?”

“Being 66, I just felt I wasn’t old enough to wear whites to play bowls,” he said. “That’s when it hit me, if you’re not going to do that [or join a club], what else are you going to do?”

John’s wife had also picked up that he wasn't his normal “carefree, happy-go-lucky” self and suggested he think about returning to work.

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John ended up applying for a job at his local Coles in Mooloolaba, where he’d been a customer for nearly 25 years. A couple of months later he got the call for a job interview.

“I had never applied for a job in my life or had a job interview in my life. I went from being an employee, bought the boss out and then became self-employed,” he said.

But it turned out John had nothing to worry about and he secured the job the next day. He’s now been working at Coles for the past four months in the services team, which involves overseeing cleaning and trolleys, and is loving it.

“The benefits I am getting now far outweigh sitting at home,” John said.

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Unretirement trend

The great unretirement trend was initially triggered by the pandemic, with more than 179,000 Australians over the age of 55 rejoining the workforce between 2019 and 2022.

Like John, some retirees are choosing to return to work to keep active and social but, for others, it’s been a financial necessity.

A survey by National Seniors Australia found money was the top reason 60 per cent of pensioners and 46 per cent of non-pensioners decided to return to work.

“Many are going back to work because of those positive experiences but there are a number of them [who are] struggling and, in particular, those that are renting,” National Seniors CEO Chris Grice told Yahoo Finance.