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 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 According to a 2006 analysis of data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, "Workers could increase their annual income by an average of 5 percent from age 50 on...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data gathered from the Health and Retirement Study, 23% of male full-time career (FTC) workers in self-employment positions in 1992 were still in t...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data gathered from the Health and Retirement Study, 17% of female full-time career (FTC) workers in wage-and-salary positions in 1992 were still in...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data gathered from the Health and Retirement Study, 11% of male full-time career (FTC) workers in wage-and-salary positions in 1992 were still in t...  more According to a 2008 analysis of Health and Retirement Study data from 1992-2004, workers aged 63-73 were more likely to be male or female self-employed full-time career (FTC)...  more According to a 2008 report on the impact of a slowing economy by AARP, postponing of plans to retire was reported by 24% of workers aged 45-54, 19% of workers aged 55-64, and...  more According to a 2006 MetLife report on caregiving costs, "at least 6 out of 10 employed caregivers reported that they had made some work-related adjustments as a result of thei...  more In a 2006 survey of more than 3,000 US retirees and preretirees, reasons for unplanned early retirement "vary by wealth level. More than half of the respondents with less than...  more In a 2006 survey of more than 3,000 US retirees and preretirees, a full 40 percent were forced to stop working earlier than they had planned, largely because of health problem...  more In a 2006 survey of more than 3,000 US retirees and preretirees, while "almost half of all respondents expect to work past age 65, only 13 percent of current retirees have don...  more According to a 2008 survey of small business owners, "21% of small business owners said at least 5 percent of their workers are ages 60 to 64...compared to 16% last year. And...  more According to a 2008 survey of small business, "nearly 37% of those surveyed said their workers ages 60-64 are waiting until later to retire; and their leading reason is they e...  more According to the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey, "about 4 in 10 workers plan to retire before reaching age 65, 17 percent say they will retire before age 60, and 21 pe...  more According to the 2007 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey "approximately 4 in 10 retirees leave the work force earlier than planned (37 percent in 2007). Reasons for leaving t...  more Approximately one-third of older workers indicated that having access to a telework option would delay their transition into retirement, according to a 2002 survey conducted b...  more A study evaluating the relationship between health, work environment, and retirement-related job lock finds that "86% of respondents over the age of 55 [who experienced a work...  more A study evaluating the relationship between health, work environment, and retirement-related job lock finds that "over half of all respondents over the age of 55 [who experien...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data gathered from the Health and Retirement Study, 17% of female full-time career (FTC) workers in self-employment positions in 1992 were still in...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data from the Health and Retirement Study, male and female wage-and-salary workers are less likely to become self-employed if they describe their h...  more Based on analysis of data gathered from the Health and Retirement Study, 15% of female wage-and-salary workers with a college degree transitioned to self-employment, while onl...  more According to a 2008 AARP survey of older workers, "more older African American workers (79%) than white workers (68%) intend to work for pay during retirement. Among older Hi...  more According to a 2008 analysis of HRS data, "between 1998 and 2004, the fraction of 65 to 67 year old men who were completely retired (working less than 99 hours per year) decli...  more According to a 2008 analysis of CPS data, men 65 to 69 were about six percentage points less likely to be retired in 2004 than in 1992. " (p. 4)...  more In a 2008 report of a survey of over 9000 Austrailian workers aged 45-64 years, 3010 were not in the labour force. Of these, 1373 (45.6%) had retired prematurely because of a...  more In a 2008 telephone interview survey, almost half (48%) of the respondants reported that they plan to be working at least part-time at the age of 67. Of those, 29% plan to be...  more According to a 2008 survey of recent retirees, "three-quarters of retirees (76 percent) report that their ability to afford retirement was an extremely or very important facto...  more According to a 2008 survey of recent retirees, "while a majority (54 percent) was either extremely, very, or somewhat satisfied with their job at the time they made their deci...  more According to a 2008 survey of recent retirees, "in general, workers begin thinking seriously about retirement not long before they actually retire. Twenty-two percent of the s...  more According to a 2008 survey of recent retirees, "many retirees report they would have been open to an approach from their employer asking them to stay longer with the company....  more According to a 2008 survey of recent retirees, "thirty-eight percent report that being able to work seasonally or on a contract basis would have been effective in encouraging...  more According to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey, the anticipated retirement age among those ages 50 and older is an average of 63.7 compared with 58.8 among those currently age...  more According to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey, "the average worker expects to retire at age 61, while the average retiree actually retired at 57.8. (p. 1)...  more According to a 2008 Gallup survey, "only 11% of small-business owners say they plan to retire and stop working in their businesses in the long run. 40% say "they will continue...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data gathered from the Health and Retirement Study, 18% of men and 14% of women in full-time career positions who received inheritances (particular...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data gathered from the Health and Retirement Study, approximately 19% of male wage-and-salary workers in white-collar, highly-skilled positions tra...  more Based on a 2008 analysis of data from the Health and Retirement Study, less than 10% of male wage-and-salary workers making less than $10/hour switched to self-employment, whi...  more In a 2005 survey of workers aged 55 or older who experienced a workplace injury and lost at least one day of work, 11% reported intent to retire earlier due to their injury....  more Using data from the Health and Retirement study, Maestas (2007)  found that retirees in their early 50s are about 20 percent more likely than older retirees to have reti...  more According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "forty-four percent of workers under 35 believe they will be able to leave the full-time labor force by age 60, compared wi...  more According to the "A Work-Filled Retirement" survey, "in 2000, 37% of workers said they would choose to retire before age 50 if their finances permitted it. By 2005, this numbe...  more "The number one reason for taking retirement benefits cited by workers age 60-65 was 'wanted to try something new and different' (20%). This option was chosen much les...  more "Among older workers, the Working Retired represent 16% of 60-65 year olds and 19% of 66-70 year olds. When we add this segment of workers (i.e., the Working Retired) to those...  more According to a 2005 Merrill Lynch survey, “when probed about their ideal work arrangement in retirement, the most common choice among boomers would be to repeatedly “cycle...  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 The Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study found that a majority of older Americans (70 percent of men and 69 percent of women) state that the reason they have retired is t...  more 28 percent of the older workers who responded to a survey recently conducted by The Conference Board said that their desire to 'contribute to society' was a factor i...  more The Cornell Careers Center found that "The most common reason for retiring but continuing to work after retirement is that respondents want a work schedule that allows them th...  more The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory has reported that "70 % of flexible-hours employees are retirees." (p.1) ...  more The Conference Board reports that nearly half of the respondents to its recent survey stated that "more flexibility in working hours would prevent them from retiring." (p.22)....  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 Only two percent of the respondents to The Conference Board survey listed their caregiving responsibilities as a reason for retiring. (p.21)...  more "In a poll conducted for FORTUNE by TheLadders.com-- a job site for executives earning $100,000-plus a year--51% say they plan to keep on working after they retire from thei...  more Two-thirds (69%) of the older workers responding to a recent Conference Board Survey who said that they plan to continue to work for at least five years reported that their fi...  more According to a 2004 analysis by Mulvey, "... the existence of a phased retirement program increases the average retirement age among women by 21 months.  For men, phasing...  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, "...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, "nearly half (46%) reported that they would like to start phase...  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 Respondents in a 2007 national study of employers reported that "the average retirement age at their company is 59.8 years, and that they expect 10.8% of their employees will...  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 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 According to analysis of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development, just over a third of the employers (37.0%) stated that they had adopted strategies...  more "Delayed retirement and work during retirement have become more and more crucial to the income picture of those over 65, with earnings rising from a low of 17 percent in 1988...  more According to a Congressional Research Service report, "there is a rapid decline of labor force activity as workers reach their late 50s (55-59)--the approximate age when many...  more A study by Smith and Moen (2004) found that "when retired husbands perceive their wives as influential, the odds of the husbands reporting retirement satisfaction are more tha...  more A study by Moen and Smith (2004) found that "a female retiree is more than five times more likely to report being satisfied when she reported that her husband was not influent...  more A study by Moen, Kim, and Hofmeister (2001) found that of their respondents, "Almost one-fifth (17.6%) of married respondents…are currently in jobs subsequent to their prima...  more In 2005, 2.2% of the workforce aged 45-54 was retired. In 2005, 20.7% of the workforce aged 55-64 was retired. In 2005, 69.8% of the workforce aged 65-74 was retired. In 2005,...  more 25 percent of people retiring between ages 50 and 58 cited poor health as an important reason for their retirement decisions, compared with 35 percent of those retiring betwee...  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 53% of the workers aged 50-70 surveyed expect to continue working until the age of 70, and 27% of workers surveyed expect to continue until the age of 80. (p.59)...  more "63 percent [pre-retirees] state that they plan to work at least part-time in retirement, and an additional 5 percent say that they never expected to retire, suggesting that a...  more The Health Confidence Survey (HCS) found that "...60 percent of workers who expect to receive both retiree benefits and to retire before age 65 would not retire before becom...  more      back to top For a print-ready file of all statistics for this topic, click here. Social Security Unemployment Voluntarism

DOWNLOAD A FACT SHEET: The following Fact Sheets contain selected facts and statistics from the database ( PDF format): "Unemployment" (June 2008) "Employer-Provided Health Insurance" (June 2008) "Injury & Productivity in the Multigenerational Workplace" (April 2008) "Health & Productivity in the Multigenerational Workplace" (April 2008) "Flex Options: Flexible Schedules" (March 2008) "Flex Options: Self-Employment & Consulting" (March 2008) "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