Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:44:34.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Work after retirement: worklife transitions of career public employees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2020

Robert L. Clark ,
Robert G. Hammond  and
Siyan Liu
Robert L. Clark*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Management, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA
Robert G. Hammond
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA and
Siyan Liu
Affiliation:
Economics Graduate Program, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Engaging in paid employment after claiming retirement benefits may be an important avenue for individuals to work longer as life expectancies rise. After separating from one's career employer, individuals may engage in paid work to stay active or to supplement their current level of retirement savings or both. Individuals who choose not to work after claiming may be expressing their preference to stay retired, perhaps because their retirement income is sufficient. However, the decision to work after claiming may be driven by the lack of retirement planning and insufficient savings, while the lack of post-claiming work may reflect the inability to find adequate employment opportunities. We use administrative records merged with panel data from several surveys of public employees in North Carolina to study the decision to engage in paid work after claiming retirement benefits. More than 60% of active workers plan to work after claiming benefits, while only around 42% of the same sample of individuals have engaged in post-claiming paid work in the first few years after leaving public sector employment. Despite this gap, stated work plans are strongly predictive of actual post-claiming work behavior. Our final analysis uses self-reported measures to gauge the financial well-being of our sample in the early years after leaving career employment.

Keywords

Public employeesplanning for retirementwork after retirementJ14J26J45
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Pension Economics & Finance , Volume 20 , Special Issue 3: Retirement Decisions in a Changing Labor Market , July 2021 , pp. 341 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, S, Clark, R and Ghent, L (2004) Phasing into retirement. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 58, 112–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellante, DON and Link, AN (1981) Are public sector workers more risk averse than private sector workers? Industrial and Labor Relations Review 34, 408–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cahill, K, Giandrea, M and Quinn, J (2006) Retirement patterns from career employment. The Gerontologist 46, 514–523.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cahill, K, Giandrea, M and Quinn, J (2011) Reentering the labor force after retirement. Monthly Labor Review 134, 34–42.Google Scholar
Cahill, K, Giandrea, M and Quinn, J (2018) Is bridge job activity overstated? Work, Aging, and Retirement 4, 330–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R and Morrill, M (2010) Retiree Health Plans in the Public Sector: Is There A Funding Crisis? Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R and Morrill, M (2017) Extending Work-Life of Career Employees: Employer Interests and Concerns. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.Google Scholar
Clark, R, Craig, L and Sabelhaus, J (2011) State and Local Retirement Plans in the United States. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R, Hammond, R and Khalaf, C (2019a) Planning for retirement? The importance of time preferences. Journal of Labor Research 40, 127–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R, Hammond, R and Vanderweide, D (2019b) Navigating complex financial decisions at retirement: evidence from annuity choices in public sector pensions. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance 18, 594–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R, Hammond, R, Morrill, M and Vanderweide, D (2018) Annuity options in public pensions plans: the curious case of social security leveling. Journal of Retirement 6, 33–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, M (2019) Pension reform and return to work policies. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance 18, 500–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franzel, J, Young, G and Liss-Levinson, R (2018) Balancing objectives in public employee post-retirement employment policies. Center for State and Local Government Excellence. Washington, DC. Available at https://www.slge.org/assets/uploads/2018/11/slge-nasra-post-retirement-employment.pdf.Google Scholar
Giandrea, M, Cahill, K and Quinn, J (2008) Self-employment transitions among older American workers with career jobs. Washington, DC: BLS, Working Papers No. 418.Google Scholar
Giandrea, M, Cahill, K and Quinn, J (2009) Bridge jobs: a comparison across cohorts. Research on Aging 31, 549–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, T (2010) Why doesn't every employer have a phased retirement program? Benefits Quarterly 26, 29–39.Google Scholar
Johnson, R (2011) Phased retirement and workplace flexibility for older adults: opportunities and challenges. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 638, 68–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, RW, Kawachi, J and Lewis, EK (2009) Older workers on the move: recareering in later life. AARP Public Policy Institute. Washington, DC. Available at http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/econ/2009_08_recareering.pdf.Google Scholar
Maestas, N (2010) Back to work: expectations and realizations of work after retirement. Journal of Human Resources 45, 718–748.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pienta, AM and Hayward, MD (2002) Who expects to continue working after age 62? The retirement plans of couples. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 57, S199–S208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quinn, J (1980) Labor force participation patterns of older self-employed workers. Social Security Bulletin 43, 17–28.Google ScholarPubMed
Quinn, J (1999) Retirement patterns and bridge jobs in the 1990s. Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), Washington, DC: Issue Brief No. 206: 1–22.Google Scholar
Quinn, J, Cahill, K and Giandrea, M (2019) Transitions from career employment among public and private sector workers. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance 18, 529–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruhm, C (1990) Bridge jobs and partial retirement. Journal of Labor Economics 8, 482–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zissimopoulos, J and Karoly, L (2009) Labor force dynamics at older ages: movements into self-employment for workers and nonworkers. Research on Aging 31, 89–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Clark et al. supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Clark et al. supplementary material(File)
File 78.6 KB