Holly Morris Espy did not leave television because she wanted to stop working. Two years after retiring from more than 25 years as a reporter and anchor at WTTG in Washington, D.C., she is building something new instead.
Espy, 55, co-founded Moorlow with two friends last year, a move she said fit the way she has always thought about retirement. “The moment you announce you’re retiring, everyone assumes the goal is to stop,” she said. “To finally lounge. To finally not have to work. That was never my mindset.”
Her story fits a broader shift that is reshaping retirement for older Americans. AARP research found that nearly half of people returning to work after retirement said financial pressures pushed them back, while roughly 48% pointed to everyday living costs or worries about the economy. Another 28% said they retired too early. Among workers or job seekers surveyed by AARP, more than 4 in 10 said daily living costs are their biggest motivation.
The numbers help explain why the trend has gained traction. Geoffrey Sanzenbacher said unretirement peaked in 2022 and 2023, when the job market was hot and the cost of living was climbing. During that period, he said, more than 7% of previously retired people ages 55 to 64 went back to work. He said roughly 6% of retirees are now back on the job, while AARP data showed 7% recently reentered the labor force.
For Espy, the appeal was not only financial. After years in local television, she said she wanted to pivot into something new, not step away from purpose or activity. That distinction matters because retirement is no longer landing as a clean break for many people. It is becoming a pause, a reset or a second act.
The pressure behind that shift is real. Teresa Ghilarducci said the median income of fully retired Americans over age 65 was roughly $26,770 a year in 2024, and she said half of older Americans received less than about $20,500 annually from Social Security. “That the median income of retired Americans is under $30,000 per year is why many retirees try to unretire,” she said. “Work is often the only realistic way to increase income after retirement.”
That is the friction in the story. Some older Americans return to work because they miss community, intellectual engagement or a sense of purpose. But the larger force pulling many back is money, and that is changing what retirement means in practice. It is not always an ending anymore. For a growing number of people, it is a return ticket.
