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Leaving Retirement: Age-Graded Relative Risks of Transitioning Back to Work or Dying

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Abstract

Demographic research has documented the age-graded risk of returning to work after a period of retirement; few studies, however, have disaggregated this risk into the different forms work takes in later life. Moreover, prior research has not explored the age-graded risk of re-retiring after reentry. This study uses the 1992–2008 Health and Retirement Study to first examine the age-graded and duration dependent risks of transitioning to full-time work, part-time work, and mortality from full retirement. Second, this study documents the age-graded duration of reemployment, and the age-graded risk of re-retiring. Results from multi-decrement life tables indicate reemployment both occurs more frequently and lasts longer than previously estimated. The gender differences in risk of reemployment are modest, although women are at greater risk of returning to part-time work, whereas men are at greater risk of returning to full-time work. Additionally, retirees from services-producing industries are at lower risk of transitioning to work, but greater risks of mortality, suggesting retirement is a less permanent feature in the life course of retirees from goods-producing industries. Finally, the results suggest Social Security benefit eligibility plays a part in reducing reentry at later ages.

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Notes

  1. For a review of the history of retirement in the United States, see Costa (1998).

  2. One particularly notable distinction is that data in Hardy (1991) comes from a sample in Florida, whereas the data used in Han and Moen (1999) comes from a sample of “upper tier” companies in upstate New York.

  3. Few older adults remain in the labor force after age 80 (Warner et al. 2010). Indeed, only 17 cases in the core HRS sample were observed older than 85, which is an adequate cell size for estimation the transition rates that are the input for the multi-decrement life tables.

  4. Limiting the sample to those who were self-identified retired results in a liberal demarcation between users of bridge jobs and those who reenter or become “unretired.” Cahill et al. (2007) used two waves of retirement as the necessary condition for re-retirement. However, because the respondents in our sample already self-identify as retired, it is unlikely that they are looking to ease into retirement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5020, Atlanta, GA, 30302-5020, USA

    Ben Lennox Kail

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 711 Oldfather Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0324, USA

    David F. Warner

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  1. Ben Lennox Kail
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  2. David F. Warner
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Correspondence to Ben Lennox Kail.

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Kail, B.L., Warner, D.F. Leaving Retirement: Age-Graded Relative Risks of Transitioning Back to Work or Dying. Popul Res Policy Rev 32, 159–182 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-012-9256-3

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