Career Trajectories and Older Men's Retirement

The idea of a long and stable career rewarded by retirement is a fixture of the American social ethos and political economy. The paradox is that many Americans' careers do not fit this image. Here, we examined how the structure of the career, as compared to only those circumstances proximate to retirement, is important for understanding career endings. Based on labor force histories drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, we observed that the occupational roles held through the mid and late career combine additively to influence retirement and disability experiences, with different conditions of work coming into play depending on the career stage. Occupational roles in the mid career also have long-term, indirect effects, operating through the onset of health problems and the adequacy of pension benefits. Although retirement and disability are not hinged to occupational mobility per se, these career endings are sensitive to major discontinuities in the career and work role in terms of unemployment and labor force mobility.