Several retirement trends have been brought into focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most disturbing is the number of workers between 50 and 65 who are in jobs without retirement benefits. Today half of all workers don’t have access to a work sponsored retirement plan.

Read also US. DOL’S ESG proposal would hurt retirement accounts

According to a recent study by Alicia H. Munnell and her colleagues at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, one-fifth of American workers in the 50 to 65 cohort are in non-traditional work arrangements. Matthew S. Rutledge, also at the Center for Retirement Research, estimates that a third of that group doesn’t have health insurance or a retirement account.

Professor Munnell’s analysis revealed that fully half of older Americans in no-benefit jobs stay in those jobs for years. Only 26 percent have used no-benefit jobs as a stop-gap between full-time jobs with benefits. One intriguing statistic: 24 percent of workers in non-traditional, no-benefit jobs have college degrees or higher. I

t seems likely that new work arrangements, like remote work for full-time employees, will also increase the number of non-traditional, “1099 jobs” aka Gig workers. As the pandemic realigns the labor market in the U.S., the necessity for individuals to be aware of and plan for retirement will only increase.

The potential negative economic impacts of this trend are significant: Professor Munnell estimates that workers in nontraditional jobs for the duration of their fifties and early sixties will save 26 percent less than their peers who were in full-time jobs with a 401(k) plan.

Read more @Forbes