At 92, Pete Perillo still has a workday routine. He prays and then heads off in uniform to guard the city courthouse.

“In the morning, I talk to St Anthony and come in,” Perillo said. “I come in every day... these people, they keep me alive.”

Perillo has been working as a judicial marshal in Stamford Superior civil court division since 1978. He has been talking about retiring for the past decade.

“I don’t think he ever will,” said Chief Marshal Victor Corley.

He is one of a growing number of people for whom retirement age has lost its meaning. They’re staying on the job longer — some for personal satisfaction, others out of necessity.

Some are even working away into their 90s and beyond: In Maryland, Grace Wiles, 97, works about 25 hours per week at a shoe repair store. In Nebraska, 98-year-old Sally Gordon is the legislature’s assistant sergeant at arms.

They’re all younger than Waldo McBurney, a 104-year-old beekeeper from Kansas who was recently declared America’s oldest worker.

About 6.4 per cent of Americans, 75 or older, slightly more than 1 million, were working last year. That’s up from 4.7 per cent, or 6,34,000 a decade earlier, according to the US department of labour.

About 3.4 per cent of Americans, 80 or older, or 318,000, were in the work force last year, up from 2.7 per   cent or 188,000 a decade earlier, officials said.

“For the first time in history, four generations are working together,” said Melanie Holmes, vice-president of Corporate Affairs for Manpower Inc, an employment services company.

With the first wave of ‘baby boomers’ reaching the traditional retirement age, Manpower has urged companies to start thinking about ways to retain and recruit older workers through flexible scheduling.

According to Holmes, companies need to extend their diversity training to include age, as well as race and gender. Older workers often bring experience and a strong work ethic, but may have a different style of work: They may be better at face-to-face contact than electronic communications and may adhere more strictly to company rules, Manpower officials said.

Some companies are reluctant to hire older workers. A survey last year by Manpower found that 24 per cent of employers viewed expectations for higher salary or stature as one of the top roadblocks to hiring older workers, while 21 per cent cited health care costs.

Still, after decades of decline, the number of workers aged 55 and older began to rise about a decade ago.