Disparate Pathways to Working Longer, Retiring, or Other Exits

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

Baby boomers, born 1946-64, are moving to and through the conventional retirement years in unprecedented numbers, even as conventional retirement protections and expectations are unraveling. Existing studies of earlier cohorts of retirees do not fully capture the timing, sequencing, and voluntariness of short-term work-hour and workforce paths and transitions that Boomer men and women may experience. This project examines the experiences of women and men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s as they navigate later adulthood. The project assesses who is working longer, as well as the timing of exits from and reentries into employment. The project also examines whether these dynamics vary between advantaged and disadvantaged workers. The project will assess whether working longer matters for the financial sustainability of individuals and their families, or the extent to which age-graded safety nets are effective. Scientific advances from this work will inform the development of policy interventions promoting possibilities for working longer as well as for unpaid community engagement. These insights are key in light of the extraordinary numbers of Boomer women and men considering or undergoing labor market transitions moving them from social inclusion to social exclusion from the mainstream of society. This project charts patterned short-term workforce constellations, capturing similarities and differences in sequencing and timing, for over 850,000 women and men ages 50 to 75 over eight time points. The project draws on linked Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly panel data from 1998 to 2018, with subsequent use of data from 2020. Individuals are surveyed in the CPS over a period of up to 16 months, which permits study of labor force entry and exists during that time frame. Using sequence and multi-level analysis, the project identifies the impacts of inequalities in patterned workforce constellations by social location, including variations by age, gender, education, race/ethnicity, and nativity, in combination with geosocial locations. The project will capture the contemporary complexity, heterogeneity, and inequities in short-term 16-month work-hour/workforce and family living arrangement dynamics of Boomer women, men, and couples, examining similarities and differences in the experiences of Boomers and the cohort preceding them. The project will assess the predictive effects of resources such as prior health, income, and job tenure, combined with disadvantaged social statuses and geographical locations, on the likelihood of following particular workforce patterns, and whether these predictive effects differ by cohort and time period. The project will assess the relationship of patterned short-term work constellations to continuity and change in income levels, civic engagement, and shifting family living arrangements. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.