The Normative Anticipation of Retirement by Older Workers

The scope of explanation for retirement behavior could be greatly enlarged by acknowledging workers' extended engagement with the question before the event - its givenness in their future and their course of action toward it. Evidence for such extended involvement is provided by survey responses of 2,575 male and 2,346 female US workers ages 51-61 in the 1992 Health and Retirement Study who saw themselves being within 15 years of retiring. To the extent that workers foresaw less time left at work, they reported more frequent thinking and talking about retirement. This pattern was quite general. The consideration given to retirement was, as expected, more frequent in circumstances that might orient workers toward the future. However, even absent these circumstances, subjective proximity still predicted the topicality of retirement. Widely held, albeit individual, timetables for retirement demonstrate its embeddedness in the subjective life course of older workers. 2 Tables, 1 Figure, 41 References. Adapted from the source document

Retirement/Work Attitudes/Worker Attitudes/Working Hours/Elderly/Work Orientations/Life Stage Transitions/Life Plans

1264