Older workers and the labour market

Geoff Rowe and Huan Nguyen

• Retirement as a self-reported event appears to be relatively infrequent. Only about 51% of men and 30% of women in the study population had retired from a job by age 65.
• Older workers experienced considerable job turnover. Between ages 50 and 65, the average number of job separations per worker was 3.2 for men and 2.6 for women.
• Job separation rates for older workers were similar to those of much younger workers. However, older workers had less chance of becoming re-employed. Rates of reemployment after one year declined steadily after age 25.

The authors are with Social and Economic Studies Division. Geoff Rowe can be reached at (613) 951-8215 or perspectives@statcan.gc.ca.