Cohort Trends in Working-Life Expectancies in the United States: A Register-Based Study Using Social Security Administration Data

Christian Dudel , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Mikko Myrskyla, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Little is known about the length of working life, despite being a key policy indicator. In this paper, we study how the length of working life has developed in the US from a cohort perspective. We use a longitudinal sample of U.S. social security register data, covering about 1.7 million individuals of the cohorts born from 1920 to 1965. For all cohorts, we study the employment trajectory and working life expectancy by gender and nativity (native-born/foreign-born). We find that the length of working life has been increasing for native-born males and females, and younger cohorts worked longer than older cohorts. But working life expectancy might peak and stall soon. For the foreign-born the gap to the native-born has increased over time, although they might be able to catch up in coming years.

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 Presented in Session 200. Pensions, Social Security, and Retirement