Nearly one out of four people of retirement age is still in the workforce in the Lincoln area, which is among the highest rates in the country.
According to census data released Thursday morning, 23% of people age 65 or older in the Lincoln Metropolitan Statistical Area are working, which ranks sixth among the 200 largest metro areas in the U.S. and third among metros ranked 101st to 200th in size.
Lincoln also has the lowest senior unemployment rate of any metro area in the country, at 0.9%.
The state as a whole had similar numbers, coming in second among states with a 33% labor participation rate among those ages 65-74, behind only South Dakota. Counting only those 75 and older, Nebraska leads the nation with a 7.9% participation rate. The state also had the lowest unemployment rate among those 75 and older, at 1.4%.
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Both the state and Lincoln metro area labor force participation rates are much higher than the U.S. rate, which is 17.7%.
Omaha ranked highly as well, coming in 14th among the largest metro areas for labor force participation and seventh for unemployment rate.
David Drozd, research coordinator for the Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, parsed through the data from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey.
Drozd said there are a few factors at play as to why so many seniors in Nebraska are still working.
Midwesterners as a whole are known for a strong work ethic and high labor participation rates, and that spills over into the senior ranks, he said.
Drozd also said wages play a role, and Nebraska has relatively low wages even when adjusted for cost of living.
"So people perhaps have to work to make ends meet better, or if they’ve had relatively lower wages over time, they may still be working as they feel they can’t retire, without risking running out of money as they age," he said in an email.
Drozd also said that because more retirees leave Nebraska than move here, "relatively more older people who stay tend to be working."