Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine the experiences of retirees who were aged 51 to 61 in 1992 and therefore who were 61 to 71 in 2002, Cahill and his colleagues found, “nearly half of self-employed FTC* workers who took on a bridge job were still employed in 2002 compared to only 37 percent of wage-and salary workers. In addition, while only 15 percent of wage-and-salary workers who took a bridge job have taken on a job in self-employment, 40 percent of self-employed FTC* workers took on a wage-and-salary bridge job. A similar story is observed with those who had taken bridge jobs but were out of the labor force by 2002.” (p.12)

* FTC means full-time career. The authors, define full-time career (FTC) job as “one that consists of at least 1,600 hours per year (“full time”) and that lasts ten or more years (“career”).” (p. 8)

Cahill, E. K., Giandrea, D. M., & Quinn, F. J. (2005, September 29). Are traditional retirements a thing of the past? New evidence on retirement patterns and bridge jobs. Working paper. Retrieved July 18, 2006, from http://ideas.repec.org/p/boc/bocoec/626.html

"This paper investigates whether permanent, one-time retirements are coming to an end just as the trend towards earlier and earlier retirements did nearly 20 years ago. We explore how common bridge jobs are among today’s retirees, and how uncommon traditional retirements have become. Design & Methods: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we explore the work histories and retirement patterns of a cohort of retirees aged 51 to 61 in 1992 over a ten-year time period in both a cross-sectional and longitudinal context. Bridge job determinants are examined using bivariate comparisons and a multinomial logistic regression model of the bridge job decision.”