Retirement, Disability, and Employment

As populations in many countries grow older, the boundaries between working life and retirement have become less fixed and more consequential. Demographers and social scientists study how individuals transition out of the labor force — whether gradually through part-time or bridge employment, abruptly due to health shocks, or in response to the incentives embedded in Social Security and pension systems — and how those transitions shape health, income security, and social participation in later life. A persistent concern is whether institutional structures and workplace practices, including age discrimination, push workers out before they are ready or keep others in longer than is good for them. Active research debates center on how retirement timing affects physical and cognitive health over the long run, and how policy can better support workers who want or need to remain employed into their sixties and seventies.

Works

96,229

Total citations

592,567

Keywords

RetirementAging WorkforceHealth EffectsEmployment PatternsSocial Security ProgramsAge Discrimination