Trends and Correlates of Post-Retirement Employment, 1968 to 2007

Kimberlee A. Shauman, University of California, Davis
Robin Pleau, University of California, Davis

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 U.S. and the implications this work-retirement behavior may have both for the labor market and for individual workers, post-retirement employment behavior is understudied. In this paper, we add to the growing literature on retirement and employment processes by examining the trends and correlates of post-retirement employment in the U.S. from 1968 to 2007. Specifically, this paper presents (1) trends in the prevalence of post-retirement employment for the older population as a whole and for subpopulations defined by sex, race, immigration status and other important demographic characteristics; and (2) an analysis of the correlates of post-retirement employment that might help explain the observed trends.