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It's not just Covid-19 that boomers have to worry about—it's theirretirement, too. Not only are the older members of thisgeneration more at risk from the coronavirus, but the accompanyingmarket panic may also have robbed the younger boomers of theirchance to retire.

A blog post from the Center for Retirement Research atBoston College points out that lots of boomers already had the deckstacked against them because of too little retirement savings, butthey could have been trying to play catch-up in their retirementaccounts by taking on riskier investments—which may now havetanked.

According to the blog post, "Economists estimate GDP willcontract in the second quarter at an unprecedented 10 percent to24 percent annual rate." And it quotes EvanBeach, a financial planner in Alexandria, Virginia, predicting that"People are going to get fired, and the people who get fired arenot the 25-year-olds making $60,000. They're going to be the 50-and 60-year-olds making $120,000."

While some boomers will be checking the want ads and trying tofind work to replace their suddenly lost asset pool, others willfind themselves "retired"—whether they want to be or not—due to aninability to find work to replace whatever job they had. And thosewho do might be forced to claim Social Security earlier than they'dintended, locking in a smaller benefit for the rest of their livesbut seizing the only opportunity they may have to bring in enoughincome to survive.

A Bloomberg report argues that not only do older peopleneed to go back to work once the shutdown is lifted, but theeconomy needs them to go back to work. Losing the pool of workersthe size of boomers delaying retirement—those over 55 representnearly a quarter of the labor pool means that the workforce,already in short supply before the crash, will be even moreshrunken.

There are plenty of other reasons to hope that older workers canreturn to the workforce. Those short on retirement funds before thecrisis will be in even more dire financial straits, but jobs couldhelp them with an economic lifeline. Businesses need theirexpertise and experience, even if they can't use them today—infact, if businesses lose too many experienced personnel, theythemselves may not survive. And yet another reason: "Countriesconfronting aging and slow population growth need to keep olderworkers employed to sustain their economies."

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