Employment after Retirement: Who Gets Back in.?

This study deals with one piece of the more general topic of job termination and responses to job terminations by focusing on the retirement and reentry behavior of older men and women. Using survey data from a representative sample of Florida residents aged 55 and older, multinomial logit models distinguishing reentrants, available workers, and retirees are estimated. Results are supportive of a status maintenance perspective on inequality in old age, showing that many of the factors associated with an insufficient demand for labor at younger ages are reproduced as predictors of unsuccessful reentry into the labor force after an initial retirement. Women, in particular, appear to be disadvantaged in their ability to maintain a desired attachment to the labor force, and evidence of this disadvantage persists even when preretirement job status and educational achievement are controlled.