Influences on the bridge employment decision among older USA workers

Abstract

In this study the authors examined the four organizational and personal variables of voluntariness of retirement, flexibility, pre‐retirement planning and anticipated financial reward to determine their influence on the decision of older workers to consider early retirement, continue work, obtain bridge employment in the same job or obtain bridge employment in a different job. Participants were 2771 US workers from the Health and Retirement Study who were currently working and aged 50 years old and older. Results of a direct discriminant function analysis showed that three of the four variables‐voluntariness of retirement, anticipated financial reward and flexibility‐significantly distinguished older workers in the four retirement/employment decision categories. The implications of the results for both individuals and organizations are discussed.