Older Workers on the Move: Recareering in Later Life

Recareering, or career change, is common at older ages. Workers who change careers typically move into jobs that pay less and offer fewer benefits. However, the new careers tend to offer more flexible work arrangements, less stressful working conditions, and fewer managerial responsibilities. For workers interested in delaying retirement after long careers, such jobs may be just what they are looking for.

Relatively little is known about recareering. This PPI Research Paper by examines the characteristics of workers who change careers in late life. Using data from eight waves of the biennial Health and Retirement Study (1992-2006), Richard W. Johnson, Janette Kawachi, and Eric K. Lewis of The Urban Institute examine the extent and nature of career change by older workers and its consequences for later-life employment. Special attention is paid to the circumstances surrounding later-life job separations that influence career change.

The analyses indicate that nearly two-thirds of workers who change jobs (and 27 percent of all older workers) switch occupations. Late-life occupational change is more common among men because women are less likely to continue working if they leave an employer in their fifties. Among those who do change jobs, however, women and men are equally likely to recareer. Defined benefit pension coverage significantly reduces the likelihood that older workers change jobs. When other factors are controlled for, retirees who take new jobs are nearly twice as likely to move into new occupations as reemployed workers who had been laid off.

The research concludes that later-life career change seems to be an important part of the retirement process. Many changers later in life appear to be pushed into new lines of work involuntarily following job layoffs or business closings. Others, however, appear to place a high premium on leaving 9-5 work and moving into more flexible positions, even at less pay. Some older workers may change careers in hopes of finding more meaningful jobs that give added purpose to their lives. (67 pages)