Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Social Trends

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    Take this Job and Love It

    Self-employed adults are significantly more satisfied with their jobs than other workers. They’re also more likely to work because they want to and not because they need a paycheck.

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    Recession Turns a Graying Office Grayer

    The American work force is graying — and not just because the American population itself is graying. Older adults are staying in the labor force longer, and younger adults are staying out of it longer.

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    End-of-Life Decisions: How Americans Cope

    While most Americans approve of laws that say treatment can be stopped if that’s what a terminally ill patient desires, they are split on what they would do personally in that situation.

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    Go West, Old Man

    If a latter-day Ponce de Leon were to search for a modern fountain of youth, he’d do well to explore America’s West. There he’d find the highest concentration of older adults in the United States who don’t think of themselves as old.

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    Most Middle-Aged Adults Are Rethinking Retirement Plans

    In the midst of a recession that has taken a heavy toll on many nest eggs, just over half of all working adults ages 50 to 64 say they may delay their retirement — and another 16% say they never expect to stop working.