Retirement patterns from career employment

Purpose: This article investigates how older Ameri-cans leave their career jobs and estimates the extent of intermediate labor force activity (bridge jobs) between full-time work on a career job and complete labor-force withdrawal. Design and Methods: Us-ing data from the Health and Retirement Study, we explored the work histories and retirement patterns of a cohort of retirees aged 51 to 61 in 1992 during a 10-year period in both cross-sectional and longitu-dinal contexts. We examined determinants of retire-ment patterns in a multinomial logistic regression model. Results: We found that a majority of older Americans with career jobs retire gradually, in stages, rather than all at once. We also found that the utilization of bridge jobs was more common among younger respondents, respondents without defined-benefit pension plans, and respondents at both the lower and upper ends of the wage distri-bution. Implications: Older Americans are now working longer than pre-1980s trends would have predicted. Given concerns about the traditional sources of retirement income (Social Security, em-ployer pensions, and prior savings), older Americans may have to rely more on earnings. This article suggests that many are already doing so by moving to bridge jobs after leaving their career employment