• Older Americans are facing career setbacks due to caregiving for aging parents, impacting finances.
• Many quit jobs or reduced their hours, unable to afford nursing homes for their loved ones.
• Some told Business Insider they weren’t able to land back on their feet after taking years off.

Many older Americans are facing a difficult choice: leave behind a career they’ve built for decades to care for their parents, or stay at their job and cover the high cost of care.

In the late 1990s, Maylia Tsen’s parents moved from New York to live with her in Southern California. Tsen said her mother was facing several health issues and that her area offered better access to healthcare. Tsen continued to work full-time as a VP of sales and marketing, but eventually, it became too difficult to balance the role with her caregiving responsibilities. Around 2005, she left the job she’d spent years working toward, which she said paid more than $150,000 annually.

“I couldn’t take full-time hours,” said Tsen, 63. “I couldn’t make that commitment because I never knew what was going to happen with them.”

About two dozen older Americans told Business Insider in responses to reader surveys about work and retirement that they moved, quit their jobs, or switched to a part-time work schedule to care for their parents. Many made the decision because taking on caregiving themselves was the most economical option, as they couldn’t afford the high costs of nursing homes or other long-term care for their parents.

They’re now earning less since they reentered the labor market or are struggling to get hired in the industries they worked in before stepping away.

Are you an older American who has struggled to secure work due to caring for parents? Have you struggled in general to find a job recently? To share your story, please fill out this form.

The most recent data on unpaid caregiving from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that over the combined years of 2021 and 2022, about 9 million or 21% of 55- to 64-year-olds provided eldercare, referring to unpaid care provided by family or friends to those 65 or older. This demographic did about four hours on average of eldercare each day.

A 2021 AARP report found, based on a survey of 2,380 caregivers, that they spent on average $7,242 annually of their own money. Among the 1,415 working caregivers in the survey, 29% had to take paid time off from work in the past year because of caregiving.

“It’s been a real financial challenge and burden,” said Tsen. “Caregiving has taken a toll on me, financially, physically, and mentally.”

Tsen’s mother died 11 years ago, but she still cares for her 97-year-old father. To facilitate her caregiving, she’s turned down higher-paying work in favor of lower-paying jobs that offered her the flexibility she needed. To pay the bills, she’s had to draw upon her savings and retirement funds.

Struggling to land work after a pause

Some people have continued to face career obstacles after scaling back their caregiving responsibilities. D. Peterson, 65, applied for jobs unsuccessfully for a year and a half after taking three years off to care for her mother.

Peterson, who lives in Georgia and asked to obscure her first name to protect her family’s privacy, often switched jobs and worked as a leasing consultant, administrative assistant, and real-estate agent throughout her career. She made enough to live comfortably but called herself a “poor money manager” and said she didn’t prepare well for retirement. Because of her financial situation and her mother’s health, she moved in with her in 2010.

At the start of the pandemic, she quit her job where she was earning $40,000 annually to care full time for her mom, who was in her mid-80s. Once her siblings became more involved with caretaking in 2023, Peterson looked for work — only to realize that landing a role with a three-year gap and being close to retirement age would be challenging.

She wasn’t familiar with the new hiring technology like online interviews, and there weren’t many administrative assistant roles remotely or in her area. The available ones had hundreds of applicants. And because she switched industries during her career, she said she couldn’t prove her authority in one field as easily.

Peterson landed a job at a library a month ago, which pays $11 an hour, but she injured her ankle two weeks in and said she’s applying elsewhere. She doesn’t foresee herself being able to retire as she relies on her $1,600 monthly Social Security checks.

“I’m trying to save as much as I can and finally put myself on a budget, but my main concern now is my mom, who’s losing her memory and eyesight but doesn’t want to go into assisted living,” Peterson said. “It’s hard to stay motivated when you feel like you don’t have the skills or face age discrimination.”

The labor market has been difficult for job seekers in general, including for older Americans, some of whom have taken huge pay cuts after a layoff or voluntary departure. Additionally, even though the unemployment rate is historically low, hiring rates have slipped from more than 4% a few years ago to 3.3% and 3.4% in recent months.

Rita Choula, senior director of caregiving for AARP Public Policy Institute, told BI that more companies should aim to support caregivers. This can look like offering leave for caregivers or changes to company culture to normalize caring for an older adult.

“It’s great that you have vacation leave, but we really want caregivers who are under enough stress to be able to take that time for them to rest and reset,” Choula said.

Only finding limited work options

Older Americans told BI that caregiving meant sacrificing career opportunities that didn’t work with their schedules, often adversely affecting their finances.

“Many employed caregivers face strain in managing both caregiving and work responsibilities simultaneously,” the AARP report said. “These consequences can lead to reduced job security, fewer employment opportunities, and ultimately, lower retirement savings.”

In 2017, Robin, who asked to use her first name for fear of professional repercussions, sold her condo in the DC area and moved into a nearby one-bedroom apartment with her legally blind mother. She had just been laid off from her government relations job.

Robin, 62, said caring for her mother has had lasting effects on her career and earnings. To help pay the bills, Robin said she worked various retail jobs, including as a cashier at Walgreens. She said this income wasn’t sufficient, and she had to deplete much of her savings and 401(k).

“During that time, I was unable to hold anything more than a part-time job,” she said.

In 2022, Robin’s mother died, which allowed her to pursue full-time government relations roles. But, despite her roughly 20 years of industry experience, she said she struggled to land a job.

“Employers just see the gap on your résumé, and they don’t realize that your time was spent productively, but in a very different way,” she said.

In September 2022, Robin enrolled in the Senior Community Service Enrollment program, which helps unemployed older people find work. She said the program helped her land a part-time data analytics role with the National Council on Aging — which she started in October 2023 — and that she’s interviewing for a full-time position with the organization.

“I’m really hoping the job comes through,” she said, adding, “I definitely have to recover my finances.”