Cecily O'Connor
RedwoodAge.com

Baby boomers planning to work past traditional retirement age may want to check out Harrisburg, Penn., Seattle or Austin, Texas. The three cities are rated among the best places to land a retirement job.  

Seattle's Pike Place Market

These cities - and 47 others - meet important boomer job-seeking criteria, including: employment growth, reasonable living costs, health services and the presence of employers committed to retaining workers, according to RetirementJobs.com, a site that ranked the top 50 cities for older workers. 

"Given the desire for a majority of US baby boomers to continue working beyond traditional retirement age, there has emerged a new category of employment - a 'retirement job,'" said Bob Skladany, vice president of research at the site.

With that in mind, boomers are proving to be pretty flexible with second careers, so much so that some are "re-careering" into new professions, either to supplement their retirement income or maintain some social interaction. 

So-called retirement jobs run the gamut. Part-time, full-time and flexible work opportunities range from casual jobs like retail sales positions to formal second careers, such as traveling nurses.

For example, in the Harrisburg area, H&R Block is looking for a tax pro and Prudential Insurance is seeking a financial services manager. Meanwhile, Manpower, a staffing agency filling vacancies for various Pennsylvania clients, is in need of an event planner, a technical writer and an executive assistant, among other spots.

In Oxnard, Calif., deemed among the five best places to work on the West Coast, boomers could apply for teller positions at Wells Fargo, a bilingual bookkeeper spot (Japanese-speakers needed) with Accountemps, or a traveling OB/GYN nurse opening with Soliant Health, a medical staffing company. Also on the West Coast, Soliant is seeking a staff pharmacist in Seattle. 

In the South, a Louisville, Ky., Staples needs a sales manager and an office manager, while Manpower is seeking a quality control inspector to work in the wood industry. 

While online job boards provide a good window into a given city's needs, it's important to remember that some opportunities for boomers may be hidden, which is why networking with former colleagues and other professionals is key to carving out a plum position such as consultant.

RetirementJobs grouped the 50 best places by geography, but the order of the cities does not reflect their overall scoring.

-  Harrisburg/Lancaster, Penn.
-  Burlington/Montpelier, Vt.
-  Nashua/Manchester, NH
-  Syracuse, NY
-  Poughkeepsie, NY

Mid-Atlantic/Southeast

-  Bethesda, MD
-  Charleston, WV
-  Roanoke, Va.
-  Leesburg/Winchester, VA
-  Fayetteville, Ariz
-  Greensboro/Winston Salem, NC
-  Durham, Raleigh, Cary, NC
-  Richmond, Va.
-  Washington DC Region
-  Huntsville, Ala.
-  Tampa/Saint Petersburg, Fla.
-  Orlando, Fla.
-  Sarasota, Fla.

-  Louisville, Ky.
-  Columbus, Ohio
-  Nashville, Tenn.
-  Knoxville, Tenn.
-  Fort Wayne, Ind.
-  Joliet/Naperville, Ill.
-  Indianapolis, Ind.

-  Austin, Texas
-  San Antonio, Texas
-  Phoenix, Ariz.
-  Tucson, Ariz.
-  Oklahoma City, Okla.
-  Las Vegas, Nev.
-  Albuquerque, NM
-  Salt Lake City, Utah
-  Greeley, Colo.

-  Milwaukee, Wis.
-  Madison, Wis.
-  Appleton, Wis.
-  Rochester, Minn.
-  Ann Arbor, Miss.
-  Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
-  Iowa City, Iowa
-  Lincoln, Neb.
-  Kansas City, Mo.

-  Seattle/Bellevue, Wash.
-  Medford, Ore.
-  Tacoma, Wash.
-  Spokane, Wash.
-  Oxnard, Calif.
-  Sacramento, Calif.