Sometimes retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. Maybe it's boredom, loneliness, or just too much time on your hands — or the money runs short. There are plenty of reasons a job, especially part-time, flexible, and perhaps remote work, can start to look good to a retiree. And even during the age of coronavirus, many companies are still hiring. Here are some of the jobs seniors can pursue (with median hourly wages, where applicable, from PayScale).
Median Hourly Pay: $20.31
Accounting skills and experience don't just go away at retirement. Payroll, tax advice, or as-needed consulting can be done part-time. What's more, it can also be done remotely. Accountemps at Robert Half has guidance for taking on temporary or part-time accounting jobs.
Related: 16 Well-Paying Jobs That Make Social Distancing Easy
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
There's money to be made buying and selling antique furniture, maybe doing some refurbishing along the way. Knowledge, experience, and contacts can make a difference in profits, and online sales channels such as Craigslist, eBay, and Etsy help move merchandise.
Related: 14 Secrets for Selling Your Stuff on Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
Pottery, needlepoint, painting, sewing, and other arts and crafts shouldn't be confined to gifts for friends and relatives. Consider selling at fairs (particularly around the holidays) and on websites such as Etsy, ArtFire, and others, while working safely from home or your private studio.
Related: 35 Hobbies That Pay Off in Jobs
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
Writing can be creatively rewarding, and there many options for inexpensive self-publishing. Amazon is one of the most high-profile and has a simple how-to guide from its Kindle Direct Publishing group.
Median Hourly Pay: $14.19
Ideally, customer service should be more than just listening to complaints — it can be more like detective work to help resolve issues.
Related: 18 Big Companies Letting People Work From Home Long-Term
Median Hourly Pay: $14.75
Driving packages and documents around can be less work than driving people around. One interesting option for part-time delivery is with Amazon, which promises flexible hours and pay rates from $18 to $25 an hour. With more people working from home and many also wary about shopping in person, the need for delivery people has grown substantially.
Related: The One Thing Restaurants Wish You Would Do Before Ordering Delivery
Median Hourly Pay: $14.82
Dog walking doesn't just pay — it adds fresh air and exercise into the mix. Put up fliers in local coffee shops, community centers, pet stores, and animal shelters to bring in work, or sign up with Rover.
Median Hourly Pay: $20.38
Work editing and rewriting other people's work can come from Craigslist, Indeed, or a number of other sources and sites, and involve anything from real estate brochures to restaurant menus or small newspaper ads.
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
Ever wonder where websites that answer questions get their information? Many employ people part-time to find the answers. JustAnswer pays for expertise answering questions in specific areas — up to $1,000 a month on tech issues, according to the site.
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
For as long as there has been market research, there have been focus groups. These days, many focus groups don't meet physically; the work is done online, making some focus groups little different from online surveys. Focus group sites worth a look include Schlesinger Group, SIS International, and Storyline Strategies.
Related: Entry-Level Jobs You Can Do From Home With No Experience
Median Hourly Pay: $13.38
Florists work with beautiful products all day, make people happy — or at least feel better — and get to use their creativity. It helps if applicants walk in with some knowledge of plants and flowers, innate talent, and customer service and time management skills.
Median Hourly Pay: $17.52
Design brochures, websites, menus, and other products for individual clients, or do work delivered online through sites such as Creative Market and Big Cartel.
Median Hourly Pay: $22.71
Are friends and relatives always coming around for help with odd jobs such as building fences or fixing furniture? Get the certifications, licenses, and insurance described by the Association of Certified Handyman Professionals and start making money off those skills.
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
This is a good job for someone with interior decorating skills who can handle tight deadlines and is good at working with others. Home staging typically involves partnering with real estate agents to help them inexpensively redecorate for-sale homes. The Staging Diva has tips for getting started.
Related: New Rules for Buying and Selling a Home During the Pandemic
Median Hourly Pay: $10.81
Some find a zen-like peace in cleaning. Part-time house cleaning can be lucrative, with flexible hours, and work might be just as easily found independently as by visiting websites for housekeeper recruiting such as Care.com.
Median Hourly Pay: $18.57
Home inspection requires training, and can be tough. Done properly, it may displease the homebuyer, seller, or both. But it can make a real difference in people's lives at an important moment.
Median Hourly Pay: $11.98
Offering to take care of people's houses while they are away means often staying somewhere new, but not all placements pay — some people look at it more as a way to save money, since they're not paying rent, and travel. Explore the possibilities on sites such as House Sitters America.
Median Hourly Pay: $13.60
If mowing the lawn and trimming the trees in the yard seems more like fun than a chore, it can be a route to making a little extra money. Compensation for taking care of a few lawns and gardens in the neighborhood depends a lot on location.
Related: Jobs That Could Grow During the Pandemic and Recession
Median Hourly Pay: $22.70
To stay close to a profession without the hassle of a full-time job, consider mentoring or career coaching someone just starting in the business, if you can do it remotely or while maintaining safe social distancing. LinkedIn has advice on becoming a career coach.
Median Hourly Pay: $20.18
Modeling isn't just for teenagers. After all, the magazine, website, and other ads featuring those vigorous-looking older people don't use kids in makeup and wigs. To find out more, visit the websites of agencies specializing in senior models.
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
OnlineCollege.org has a guide to get people started teaching online, and the National Education Association has advice on teaching secondary school students online. Sites such as Udemy and Teachable allow instructors to create their own courses and earn money based on their success.
Median Hourly Pay: $15.23
Fresh air, scenery, and wildlife — sound like an appealing workplace? Some park ranger jobs require a degree in a related field such as forestry, and sometimes emergency training as well.
Median Hourly Pay: $20.79
For people who enjoy cooking, a gig as a part-time personal chef may be a good fit. Cooks must be able to accommodate personal needs and tastes and meet deadlines.
Related: 11 Online Cooking Classes to Sharpen Your Skills While Stuck at Home
Median Hourly Pay: $13.16
Like house-sitting, a lot of pet-sitting opportunities offer a place to stay instead of money. But with so many owners who spoil their pets like children, there is money to be made by building up clientele and courting word-of-mouth referrals, especially.
Related: Must Love Dogs: 14 Unexpected Jobs for Animal Lovers
Median Hourly Pay: $23.88
It's not only university professors with master's degrees who can create and teach college classes. (And we're thinking online classes here.) Community adult education centers and community colleges often use people with bachelor's degrees and life experience.
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
If most of your career has been spent managing projects, don't leave that behind entirely. Stay connected in your industry and offer your services for contract project management work, the more remote the better, naturally. The website Upwork can help find work.
Related: 19 Essential Items to Keep You Safe and Healthy as You Return to Work
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
Give back with public service. The part-time compensation for serving on a school board or city council counts for more knowing you're doing something worthwhile for the community.
Median Hourly Pay: $17.99
Sites such as LinkedIn and Monster advertise jobs and find applicants, but there is no substitute for experienced people who know what a company needs. Recent retirees may be in the perfect position to help recruiters and headhunters. PayScale has insight into what it's like to work in recruiting.
Median Hourly Pay: $15.06
For those who understand how things tick, literally as well as figuratively, there's money to be made fixing everything from watches and clocks to lawnmowers and sewing machines. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sees modest growth in the sector through 2024.
Median Hourly Pay: Varies
Research assistant is a good job for people who love finding and evaluating information. LinkedIn lists thousands of open research assistant positions in towns and cities nationwide in academic and corporate settings. Pay can depend a great deal on qualifications, experience, and sector.
Median Hourly Pay: $13.10
If you've spent another tax season being asked by friends and relatives for help, you probably have the skills and experience to be paid for it. Anyone can be a tax preparer, so long as they have a preparer tax identification number from the Internal Revenue Service.
Median Hourly Pay: $20.08
Writing or speaking another language is a huge asset in many sectors, including tourism, government services, and business services. The BLS shows strong growth for translation through 2024.
Median Hourly Pay: N/A
Creative types can find a number of easy, low-cost ways to get into clothing design. Using websites such as Teespring and Teechip, it's simple to get shirts (as well as other clothing items) custom-made for you to sell. Zazzle and Etsy can take a designer even further.
Median Hourly Pay: $17.75
There are lots of tutoring services in need of people, including Kaplan, Golden Voice English, and Chegg, with online tutoring being especially in demand as kids are kept home from school.
Median Hourly Pay: $30.32
If you believe you have the pipes to do voiceover work, such as for audiobooks or training videos, VoiceBunny has advice. PayScale lists the average annual pay at $49,000.