The Great Recession, Older Workers with Disabilities, and Implications for Retirement Security

TitleThe Great Recession, Older Workers with Disabilities, and Implications for Retirement Security
Publication TypeReport
Year of Publication2012
AuthorsAltindag, O, Schmidt, L, Sevak, P
Series TitleMRDRC Working Paper
Document NumberWP 2012-277
InstitutionMichigan Retirement and Disability Research Center, University of Michigan
CityAnn Arbor, MI
KeywordsDisabilities, Employment and Labor Force, Health Conditions and Status, Public Policy, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction
Abstract

Evidence suggests that older workers with disabilities have been hit particularly hard by the recent recession. The increased difficulty in finding a job faced by individuals with disabilities, combined with the longer spells of unemployment experienced by all workers in this recession, could mean that laid-off disabled workers in their pre-retirement years may never return to work. In this paper, we use data from the 2004-2010 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine how the great recession has affected workers with chronic health conditions that put them at greater risk of disability. Our results suggest that increases in job losses were 30 greater for those with greater underlying risk of disability than for the general HRS population, and decreases in consumption were 20 greater. These results have important implications for the well-being of disabled individuals nearing retirement.

URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/95904
Endnote Keywords

great Recession/labor Force Participation/Unemployment/disabled Persons/chronic conditions/DISABILITY/DISABILITY/Job Loss/retirement planning

Endnote ID

69826

Citation Key5941