Work and Retirement Plans Among Older Americans

The Upjohn Institute for Employment Policy Research has just released an interesting article on this topic. Here is the conclusion.

Many people express a desire to continue working at older ages but wish to reduce their hours of work. Often, the only feasible way of reducing work hours is to change jobs, but this path to a shorter work week is taken by very few of those who had planned to reduce their hours.

This finding is open to different interpretations. One possible interpretation is that many people plan to reduce hours by changing jobs but have unrealistic expectations about their job alternatives. When it comes time for them actually to search for new employment, they find the jobs available to them unattractive and change their minds, continuing in their current jobs or, more likely, fully retiring. In this scenario, individuals become fully informed about their employment options and make rational choices based on this information.

Thus, there is no clear justification for policy intervention. Alternatively, older workers may face substantial barriers to changing jobs: age discrimination in employment and lack of information about job opportunities and options for skills training. In this scenario, policies to combat age discrimination, provide information on employment and training opportunities, and increase the efficiency of job transitions could have positive effects on employment among seniors. These issues warrant further study.

Download the article here.