Access to Bridge Employment:Who Finds and Who Does Not Find Work After Retirement?

Purpose of the Study: Empirical studies on the determinants of bridge employment have often neglected the fact that some retirees may be unsuccessful in finding a bridge job. We present an integrative framework that emphasizes socioeconomic factors, health status, social context, and psychological factors to explain why some people fully retired after career exit, some participated in bridge jobs, while others unsuccessfully searched for one.Design and Methods: Using Dutch panel data for 1,221 retirees, we estimated a multinomial logit model to explain participation in, and unsuccessful searches for, bridge employment.Results: About 1 in 4 retirees participated in bridge employment after retirement, while 7% searched unsuccessfully for such work. Particularly those who experienced involuntary career exit were found to have a higher probability of being unsuccessful at finding bridge employment.Implications: The current study provides evidence for the impact of the social context on postretirement work and suggests a cumulative disadvantage in the work domain in later life.