Trends and correlates of post-retirement employment, 1977–2009

Abstract

The stereotypical retirement experience – the abrupt ceasing of all paid work and commencement of a life of leisure – is the experience of only half of all workers. Yet, despite the prevalence of combining work and retirement in the US and the implications this work-retirement behavior may have for organizations and individual workers, post-retirement employment behavior is understudied. In this article, we add to the growing literature on retirement and late-life employment processes by examining the trends and correlates of post-retirement employment in the US from 1977 to 2009. We find a modest curvilinear trend in post-retirement employment for both males and females over the last 33 years. However, the modest upward trends in post-retirement employment obscure the countervailing influences of significant changes in behavior and in the macro-level demographic and economic forces that are significant determinants of post-retirement employment.