Using HRS-ONET Linked Data to Study Subjective and Objective Mismatch Between Work Demands and Capacity at Older Ages

Mismatch between demands of work and workers’ ability to meet those demands may play an important role in retirement decisions. This presentation extends earlier work using Health and Retirement Study data linked to O*NET to develop measures of discrepancy between individual’s own reports of physical and mental abilities and 1) their perceptions of the physical and mental demands of their jobs and 2) O*NET ratings of the physical and mental demands of their jobs. In particular, we utilize newly available linked information using 2010 Census codes and 2019 O*NET ratings that reflect more current jobs. We then examine the impact of each type of mismatch (subjective and objective) on retirement timing. Overall, we find a stronger connection between subjective mismatch relative to objective mismatch. We discuss implications of this finding in terms of the value of the O*NET linkage and potential interventions aimed at extending working lives for positive aging.

The Impact of Retirement Resources on U.S. Older Female Workers’ Retirement Timing: Theory of Planned Behavior Model

For older workers, having a retirement plan is important for a successful transition. Social awareness of the problems encountered by older women during retirement remains low. Women have limited retirement resources due to their unequal work experience, and older women with access to fewer retirement resources often postpone their retirement. This research examined how the timing of older women’s retirement was influenced by their retirement resources as well as their marital status. The study used 2014 HRS and RAND data, and collected sample of women aged 50-62 years old who worked either full or part time (n=3,593). Respondents were female (56%), white (63%), married (70%), and working full time (82%). Guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB), multiple regression analysis examined gender differences in predicting older adults' retirement timing. TPB included three sub factors: attitudes toward retirement, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Logistic regression analyzed the effects of respondents’ expectations of retirement (i.e., with vs without expected timing). The findings indicated that the TPB model works similarly for men and women but there is a difference according to marital status. Unmarried women are less likely to have accumulated financial resources and more likely to anticipate a later retirement (1.4 years) than married women and are also less likely to set an expected timing for retirement (p<05). Such a robust research agenda would provide key information for government agencies and policymakers and contribute to the development of retirement planning models or retirement education programs for older women.

Retirement Age Modifies the Association Between Education/Occupation and Cognition

Introduction According to the cognitive reserve and use-it-or-lose-it hypotheses, engagement in stimulating activities seems to benefit cognition, with engagement often associated with more education or higher occupational position. However, whether retirement may modify the association between education/occupation and cognition is unclear. We aimed to assess how age at retirement may modify the relationship between education/occupation and cognition. Methods Older adults (n=360) from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative who were cognitively normal and retired at baseline participated. Linear regression was used to assess how educational attainment (high/low) or occupational position (managerial, intermediate/clerical, routine/manual) related to executive functioning (EF) or memory, controlling for age, sex, depressive symptoms, and health status. Effect modification by retirement (early, on-time, late). Results High education (EF: b=0.37, SE=0.08, p<.001; memory: b=0.22, SE=0.05, p<.001), intermediate (EF: b=0.26, SE=0.11, p=.019; memory: b=0.18, SE=0.08, p=.018) and managerial (EF: b=0.23, SE=0.12, p=.045; memory: b=0.16, SE=0.08, p=.045) occupations (compared to routine/manual occupations) were associated with better EF and memory performance. High education was significantly associated with better EF and memory for participants who retired early (EF: b=0.43, SE=0.12, p<.001; memory: b=0.29, SE=0.10, p=.004) or on-time (EF: b=0.51, SE=0.15, p=.001; memory: b=0.24, SE=0.10, p=.014), but not for participants who retired late (EF: b=0.19, SE=0.15, p=.200; memory: b=0.09, SE=0.09, p=.334). Intermediate occupations were associated with EF only for participants who retired on-time (b=0.58, SE=0.21, p=.007). Conclusion Education and occupational position may influence cognition after retirement differently based on retirement timing, with effects most apparent for on-time retirement and substantially reduced for late retirement.

The Effect of Pension Subsidies on the Retirement Timing of Older Women

I estimate the effect of additional pension benefits on women’s retirement decisions by examining a German pension subsidy program. The subsidies have a kinked relationship with the recipients’ past pension contributions, creating a sharply different slope of benefits for similar women on either side of the kink point. I find that a 100 euro increase in the monthly benefit induces female recipients to claim their pensions six months earlier. Recipients also adjust their labor supply by using unemployment insurance as a stepping stone to retirement and by reducing time spent in marginal employment. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the ratio of behavioral to mechanical costs for this subsidy program is 0.25, which is smaller than that of many other income support programs.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Working Lives and Retirement Timing of Older Nurses in Ireland

COVID-19 profoundly affected Irish citizens. The effects have been especially pronounced for nurses in front-line, clinical and management roles. This article discusses the national and employer policy context relevant to nurses in Ireland. There have been staff and bed shortages in public hospitals since austerity policies were introduced following the global financial crisis. Government measures responding to the pandemic include initial ‘cocooning’ of older citizens, travel restrictions, changed working conditions and restricted availability of childcare. This article draws on interviews with 25 older nurses in 2021, sixteen women and nine men, aged 49 or over in Ireland. It explores older nurses’ experiences of COVID-19 and asks what are the implications for their working conditions and retirement timing intentions. A gendered political economy of ageing approach and thematic analysis reveals that while some nurses responded positively to the pandemic, some experienced adverse health impacts, stress and exhaustion; some reported a fear of contracting COVID-19 and of infecting their families; several women nurses decided to retire earlier due to COVID-19. The implications of the findings for employer and government policy and for research are discussed.

Trajectories of work ability from mid-life to pensionable age and their association with retirement timing

BackgroundThis study aimed to identify the trajectories of work ability over 16 years preceding the individual pensionable age and to examine the association with retirement timing.MethodsThe study population consisted of 2612 public sector employees from the Finnish Retirement and Aging study and the Finnish Public Sector study. Participants were grouped into ‘no-extension’ (retired at the individual pensionable date or worked no longer than 6 months after that date) and ‘extension’ (worked more than 6 months after individual pensionable age). Trajectories of self-reported work ability score (0–10) in maximum of eight measurement points over 16 years preceding retirement were examined using the group-based latent trajectory analysis. Log-binomial regression was used to analyse the association between trajectory groups and extended employment.ResultsFour stable (‘Stable excellent’, 7%; ‘Stable high’, 62%; ‘Stable medium’, 24%; ‘Low’, 4%) and one decreasing (‘Declining’, 3%) work ability trajectories were identified. After taking into account gender, age, occupational status, marital status and self-rated health, ‘Stable excellent’ trajectory was associated with a higher likelihood of extended employment compared with the ‘Low’ (risk ratio (RR) 2.38, 95% CI 1.21 to 4.68) and to the ‘Declining’ (RR 2.82, 95% CI 1.32 to 6.01) trajectories. There was no difference in retirement timing between ‘Declining’, ‘Low’ and ‘Stable medium’ trajectories.ConclusionWork ability remained relatively stable among majority of the participants over 16 years of follow-up. Stable excellent work ability from mid-life to late career was associated with higher likelihood of extending employment beyond individual pensionable age than those with low or declining work ability.

‘We don't talk about age’: a study of human resources retirement narratives

At the societal and policy level, delaying retirement is generally agreed upon to solve the problem of the increasing proportion of older workers in Sweden, as in many other countries. At the same time, two co-existing narratives that create legitimacy for early versus delayed retirement were found in our study, among both societal- and organisational-level actors. Older workers are viewed as either representatives of productive ageing and a solution to labour shortage problems, or as a barrier to recruiting younger, more promising employees with new skills. Through inductive qualitative analysis, this study shows in what way human resources departments are taking part in the institutional work of maintaining retirement-timing narratives in Swedish workplaces. The existing general organisational narrative of ‘the business case’ is used to mute discussion about delaying the retirement age, except for a select few. Their maintenance of this narrative is supported by the way in which the societal-level narratives target the individual, often backgrounding the role of employers.

Health- and Age-Related Workplace Factors as Predictors of Preferred, Expected, and Actual Retirement Timing: Findings from a Swedish Cohort Study

To address the challenges of demographic aging, governments and organizations encourage extended working lives. This study investigates how individual health- and age-related workplace factors contribute to preferred, expected and actual retirement timing, as well as to the congruency between preferences vs. expectations, and preferences vs. actual retirement. We used data from a representative Swedish longitudinal sample comprising 4058 workers aged 50–64, with follow-up data regarding actual retirement timing available for 1164 respondents. Multinomial logistic regression analyses suggest that later preferred, expected, and actual retirement timing were, to different extent, influenced by better health, an age-friendly workplace and feeling positive regarding the future at work. Emotional exhaustion, age-related inequalities at work and experiencing aging as an obstacle increased the likelihood of preferring to retire earlier than one expected to, over retiring at the time one expected to. Those with better health and positive work prospects were less likely to prefer retiring earlier than they expected to, and more likely to being “pulled toward working until 65 and beyond”, compared to being “pulled toward early retirement”. Experiencing aging as an obstacle decreased the chances of being “pulled toward working until 65 and beyond”. The results provide insights on how to facilitate extended working lives.