You want to stay employed, at least part time, not necessarily because you need the money but because you like being engaged in the world or you want to do something meaningful.

Welcome to the club. More and more older citizens are working and more and more employers, both for-profit and nonprofit, are hiring them.

Age discrimination hasn't gone away, but it's beginning to fade as organizations discover the advantages of an older workforce.

"Older workers spend less time goofing off on the job," explains Tim Driver, CEO of RetirementJobs.com, the world's largest online job website for people ages 50 and older. "They spend less time surfing the Internet, have a third of the turnover rate of younger workers, and work more productively."

The graying of America and other industrial countries has created shortages of younger workers and has also presented companies with the challenge of marketing and servicing an older customer base. "Companies with aging customers turn to older workers. We hear this all the time," Driver continues. "Hiring them is not a matter of altruism, it's a matter of good business sense."

Older workers are more flexible, like working part time, and will even take less pay for a job that meets their lifestyle. Many volunteer to work for charitable foundations. Some even join the Peace Corps, which currently has more than 450 volunteers who are over age 50.

RetirementJobs.com [1] has created a program to identify "age friendly" employers. To qualify, companies have to apply and go through a rigorous evaluation to prove they really want older workers and they don't discriminate. Some of the recently certified employers include Borders, H&R Block, Macy's, Manpower, John Hancock Financial, Quest Diagnostics, REI, Safeway, Staples, Starbucks, Toys "R" Us, and Wells Fargo.

At any one time there are approximately 25,000 jobs and volunteer positions posted at RetirementJobs.com [2]. Looking up and applying for these positions is free. Other sources for elder jobs include retiredbrains.com [3], workforce50.com [4], and aarp.com/money [5]. For more information about the Peace Corps, go to peacecorps.org [6].