Full Citation

Title: The Average Retirement Age - An Update

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: After nearly a century of decline, work activity among older people began to increase in the 1980s in response to a variety of factors. The question is whether the impacts of those factors have played themselves out in recent years or whether the trend toward working longer has continued. Since working longer is the key to a secure retirement, the labor force activity of people in their 50s and 60s is a crucial issue. This brief proceeds in four steps. The first section describes the turnaround in labor force activity that began in the 1980s, within the context of the long-run decline in the labor force participation of men. The second section describes the factors responsible for that turnaround. The third section looks at the labor force participation rates of men and women for four years 1963, 1983, 2003, and 2013 showing recent workforce activity significantly above the low point in the 1980s. The fourth constructs, for men and women, average retirement ages the age when 50 percent of the population is out of the labor force. Todays average retirement ages of 64 for men and 62 for women are just about where they were a decade ago, suggesting that some of the factors spurring the turnaround since the 1980s may have exhausted themselves. The final section concludes that, given the importance of working longer for retirement security, a major educational initiative may be warranted to help convince individuals of the benefits.

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Authors: Munnell, Alicia H.

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Publication Number: 15-4

Institution: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

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Publisher Location: Boston, MA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Aging and Retirement

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