Nearly one in seven bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks in America is age 65 or more, according to a new study, and in some metropolitan areas it's nearly one in four.
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Accountants and auditors are younger but still above the norm, at 8.4% aged 65 or over. Between the two occupations, 317,000 Americans aged 65 and over are still doing the books.
At 13.5%, bookkeeping clerks have the ninth highest share of workers aged 65 or over among the 58 occupations on the BLS rankable list. Only eight rank above them: farmers (32.2%), school bus drivers (27.1%), clergy (20.2%), transit bus drivers (19.8%), property managers (16.5%), real estate agents (14.6%), lawyers (14.1%), and postsecondary teachers (13.6%).
The San Francisco metro area has the highest share in the study: 24.4% of its bookkeeping and accounting clerks are 65 or older. Tampa follows at 21.3%, then San Diego at 20.7%, and Greater Boston at 19.2%.
In nine major metro areas, an accounting occupation is one of the three occupations with the highest share of workers aged 65 or over, among occupations with publishable data. Bookkeeping clerks have the highest share in Tampa and San Diego, and the second highest in San Francisco, Greater Boston, and Phoenix.
Dallas-Fort Worth has the lowest share of the 14 metro areas with publishable data, at 12.1%. Philadelphia is at 12.5%, and Chicago at 12.7%.
"The national number tells you bookkeeping skews older," said Kimberly Green, co-founder of Sam's List, in a statement. "The metro numbers tell you it's not the same story everywhere. In San Francisco it's nearly one clerk in four; in Dallas-Fort Worth it's closer to one in eight."
Among accountants and auditors specifically, Miami has the highest share of any metro area with publishable data, at 11.1% aged 65 or over, followed by the Los Angeles metro area at 10.8%, and Philadelphia at 10.7%. Chicago sits at the other end, at 6.1%.
