Aging & Work Facts Database

This database provides you with easy-to-access facts and statistics related to aging & work. Here you will find:

• A sentence with a fact/statistic.
• The full citation so you can locate the source of the statistic (e.g., article, report, etc.).
• A short description of the study connected to the fact/statistic.
• And, in some cases, a figure representing the facts or statistics, such as a bar graph.

SEARCH BY TOPIC: Age Bias and Employment Discrimination Business Strategies & Workforce Development Caregiving: Elder Caregiving: Employer-sponsored benefits for Caregiving: Other (grandchildren, spouse, dependents) Demographics: Age Distribution, Life Expectancy Education and Training Educational Attainment Employee Engagement & Job Satisfaction Employer-sponsored benefits (see also Caregiving) Employment Preferences Flexible Work Options (general) Flexible Work Options: Bridge Jobs Flexible Work Options: Consulting, Contract Work, Self-employment Flexible Work Options: Flexible Schedule Flexible Work Options: Leaves of Absence Flexible Work Options: Part-time Employment Flexible Work Options: Phased Retirement According to the 2008 National Study of Employers, 14% of employers allow phased retirement and offer defined-benefit pension plans. Among those, 78% allow employees to phase...  more According to a 2008 Metlife survey, "most of those in encore careers come from professional and white-collar jobs (88%), have at least a college education (67%), and tend to l...  more Analysis of data from the Health and Retirement Survey showed that nearly 50 percent of retirees follow a nontraditional retirement path that involves partial retirement or un...  more According to a 2007 national study of employers, 24.7% of the respondents indicated that most/all of their full-time employees have the option of transfering to jobs with redu...  more According to a 2007 national study of employers, 25.6% of respondants reported that most/all of their employees have the option to phase into retirement. (p. 16)...  more Watson Wyatt Worldwide (2004) found that 57% of those workers currently in phased retirement entered into an arrangement voluntarily to have more leisure time. (p.4)...  more According to a 2006 Urban Institute report, "close to 50 percent of workers age 60-64 either want to stop working or change their current work, compared with 30 percent of wor...  more Using Data from the Health and Retirement study, Maestas (2007) found that 55 percent of older workers (born between 1931and 1941) had accurate expectations about post-retirem...  more In a 2004 survey on phased retirement preferences, older workers said they hoped to work part-time (63 percent) or more flexible hours (48 percent).  Sixty-three percent...  more According to a 2008 Metlife survey, "the majority (about 60%) of those currently in encore careers are between 51 and 62. About one quarter (24%) are between the ages of 44 an...  more According to a 2008 Metlife survey, "those in encore careers are working in education (30%), health care (23%), government (16%), other nonprofit organizations (13%), and for-...  more A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found "about 43 percent of employed retirees who left long-term jobs and 29 percent of workers who had...  more A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found "about 93 percent of employed retirees who left long-term employers said they enjoyed their new j...  more A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found that "forty-three percent of older workers who left long-term jobs worked part-time on their new...  more A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found that "about 71 percent of older workers who left long-term jobs received health benefits at their...  more A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found that "average wages for retirees from long-term jobs (with more than 10 years of service) who con...  more A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found that "only about 23 percent of older job changers who left long-term employers remained in the sa...  more A 2007 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data for Americans 45-75 found that "about 85 percent of older people who worked after retirement changed occupations, and about...  more According to a 2008 Metlife survey, "Most in encore careers (59%) work 40 hours per week or more, with three-quarters (73%) saying that they have the flexibility they need and...  more A 2003 AARP study found that when asked what they plan to do in retirement, nearly 70% of 50-70 years olds who have not yet retired reported that they planned to work in their...  more The National Study of Employers, which surveyed workplaces with 50 or more employees, found that 50% of employers allow some employees to phase into retirement, in comparison...  more 87% of the 2005 AARP survey respondents view continuing pension benefits accruals as an important ingredient in any phased retirement arrangement. 63% said that phased retirem...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, "more than four in five (86%) workers 50-65 who plan to retire...  more Information gathered by The National Study of the Changing Workforce, conducted by the Families and Work Institute, indicates that workers in the 55-64 age group - older worke...  more Some older workers want to devote their later career years to jobs that either allow them to develop new competencies or are less demanding. These older workers employees may...  more The University of North Carolina established a phased retirement program for full-time tenured faculty, and since 1998, 524 faculty members have participated. This progra...  more Hutchens found that approximately three-fourths (73 percent) of U.S. workplaces indicate that they would allow an older employee to reduce the number of work hours before thei...  more A Watson Wyatt Worldwide survey of older workers (50-70 years old) found that one-third of the respondents said they would postpone retirement if they were offered phased reti...  more A 2004 survey of older workers conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide found that "more than 60 percent of surveyed workers are interested in working fewer hours late stages of th...  more "... the existence of a phased retirement program increases the average retirement age among women by 21 months.  For men, phasing increased average retirement age by abo...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP "three in four (75%) [workers 50-65 who plan to work beyond age...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, "approximately two in three (66%) workers ages 66 and older are...  more According to the 2003 SHRM Older Workers Survey, organizations are preparing for the possibility of a shortage of workers due to the retiring baby boom generation by: increase...  more In a 2005 AARP survey of Americans age 50 and older, 38% expressed interest in the concept phased retirement. In addition, 78% of those surveyed interested in phased retiremen...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, "nearly half (46%) reported that they would like to start phase...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, "...one-third (33%) of retirees indicated that they would have...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, "workers between the ages of 50 and 65 who plan to retire by ag...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, "compared to other respondents, respondents with low incomes (u...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, more men respondents (21%) had heard of phased retirement than...  more According to the "Attitudes of individuals 50 and older toward phased retirement" survey conducted by the AARP, "only 19% of survey respondents reported that they had heard of...  more According to Watson Wyatt, "phasing after age 65--typically considered normal retirement age--is not uncommon, with 17 percent of phasers being age 65 or older. Women--who are...  more      back to top For a print-ready file of all statistics for this topic, click here. Flexible Work Options: Remote Work, Telecommuting, Telework Flexible Work Options: Work Redesign Gender Health: Health Behaviors Health: Health Care Costs Health: Health Insurance Health: Health Status Health: Workplace Injuries Income Knowledge Transfer Labor Force Participation Marital Status Medicare & Medicaid Mental Health Multi-generational Workplace Older Workers, Advantages of Older Workers, Costs of Older Workers, Job Skills and Demands Older Workers, Perceptions about Peformance, Productivity, Absenteeism Pensions and Retirement Accounts Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration Reasons for working Recruitment , Retention, Tenure, Turnover Retirement Income & Expenditures Retirement Planning Retirement Statistics Retirement, Timing of Social Security Unemployment Voluntarism

DOWNLOAD A FACT SHEET: The following Fact Sheets contain selected facts and statistics from the database ( PDF format): "Mental Health" (Sep 2007) "Bridge Jobs" (Aug 2007) "Part-time Work" (Jul 2007) "The Multi-Generational Workplace" (Jul 2007) "Phased Retirement" (Jun 2007) "Age Bias And Employment Discrimination" (Feb 2007) "Employer Sponsored Pensions" (Feb 2007) "Age and the Labor Force" (Jan 2007) "Social Security and Older Workers" (Jan 2007) "Voluntarism Among Older Adults" (Jan 2007) "Older Workers’ Preferences for Work & Employ-ment" (Oct 2006) "Elder Caregiving" (Oct 2006)   SEARCH BY keyword: back to top