%0 Journal Article %J Monthly Labor Review %D 2012 %T Older workers and short-term jobs: patterns and determinants %A Kevin E. Cahill %A Michael D. Giandrea %A Joseph F. Quinn %K Demographics %K Employment and Labor Force %K Medicare/Medicaid/Health Insurance %X This article examines the labor force behavior of older individuals with a history of short-duration jobs and compares their behavior with that of older career workers. The next section provides a brief description of the data set used -- the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) -- and the research methods employed. The third section examines demographic and economic characteristics and labor force outcomes, and the last section summarizes and discusses the main findings. Men and women without a full-time career job in their work history were less likely than those with career jobs to have health insurance and also much less likely to have a defined-benefit or a defined-contribution pension on the job they reported in the first wave. The labor force outcomes examined in this article include work status and work intensity at the time of each biennial HRS interview and the number and types of job switches since the first interview. %B Monthly Labor Review %I 135 %V 135 %P 19-32 %G eng %U https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/article/older-workers-and-short-term-jobs-patterns-and-determinants.htm %N 5 %4 work history/Health insurance/labor force participation/socioeconomic factors %$ 69530