Yes, but the article you linked made the claim that an "astonishing" 10 million dropped out of the labor force, and I was pointing out that it may not be astonishing at all given the number of people retiring.  Another way to think about it regardless of "retiring" is that 10,000 people a day are turning 65. Six years of that is 22 million people. A lot of people are getting older, so even if some stay working and some never had a job, it is easy to get that 10 million number purely on Baby Boomers aging. I'm just not "astonished"! I'm actually mildly surprised it is only 10 million. Lots of people must be working while older, which could be a bad sign that they feel forced to, or a good sign that they are active and healthy, or both.