Retirement Transitions in the United States: Patterns and Pathways From Full-Time Work

The effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the work and retirement behaviors of older people in the United States are still unfolding. Initial evidence suggests that younger and older workers have experienced similar levels of job loss (Moen et al., 2020), but the longer-term effects of job disruptions in later life on work and retirement behaviors will not be known for years to come. As we prepare for a post-COVID-19 era, it is helpful to consider the policy, demographic, economic, and cultural changes in the decades leading up to the pandemic that set the stage for job disruptions. Pathways out of work have become increasingly diverse and stratified (Calvo et al., 2018), stemming in part from policy changes in the 1970s that enabled a shift to defined contribution programs, and a decoupling of retirement and full labor-force departure. These changes are associated with...