Instability in the Retirement Transition

TLDR

Employment and retirement patterns are shifting, with many retirees taking bridge jobs, and while early career instability is linked to health, little is known about later‑life transition instability. The study examines how instability during the retirement transition affects health among early retirees. The authors analyze a cohort of early retirees from a Canadian telecommunications firm to assess the impact of transition instability on health. They find that instability is linked to poorer health outcomes, with differences by gender and health type, and that both objective and subjective transition features predict health variability.

Abstract

The relationship between employment and retirement is changing dramatically in industrialized societies, with a decreasing proportion of working life being spent in stable career progression. Many who retire from long-service career jobs now seek paid employment in bridge jobs before completely exiting the labor force. There is little research about the effects of employment transitions and instability in later life on health, but limited research on instability early in the working life does show a strong and significant relationship. In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between instability in the retirement transition and health in a sample of early retirees from a major Canadian telecommunications company. Instability is found to be associated with adverse health effects, with variability by gender and type of health measure. In addition, both objective and subjective transition characteristics were related to variability in health.