Influence des facteurs liés au travail, à la retraite et au parcours de vie sur la décision de retour au travail et les formes de retour après la retraite : une comparaison entre les femmes et les hommes

Abstract The issue of trajectories at the end of career is one of the important issues in the workplace in most developed countries in general and in Canada and Québec. The aging of the labor force and the massive withdrawal of the baby boomers from the labor market by 2020 will put Canada and Quebec at risk of a slowdown in their economies and tensions in the pension and health system. However, while it was thought that retirement was a one-way movement, data show a backward movement of people of retirement age over the last few decades (Hébert and Luong, 2008; Carrière and Galarneau, 2012). In this trend, the behavior of women in the labor force and at the end of career shows a dynamic that illustrates the changes in their professional career and their relationship to employment since the early 1970s (Ferrand, 2004). While the topic of career paths is increasingly of interest to researchers, it must be recognized that understanding the factors that motivate women aged 55 and over to return to work after retirement is less documented (Pleau, 2010, Dahl et al., 2003, Pekins, 1994). This thesis aims to contribute to theoretical modeling leading to a better understanding of return to work and forms of return to work after retirement. Based on previous literature, we have used theories of continuity, resource conservation, and life course to understand the determinants that could explain the decision to return to work, and determinants that could explain the choice of a bridge employment in the career field instead of a bridge employment in a different field for those wishing to return to work. For each of these aspects, our study sought to identify and explain the differences between men and women in their choice. Our empirical study, mainly explanatory, was carried out among 3,533 retired people in the health sector in Montreal and Québec. We tested 26 hypotheses and research proposals related to work-related factors, retirement factors, and life-course factors. The results showed that attachment to work, satisfaction with employment and career, preparation for retirement, financial status, length of employment, career regularity and employment status were the determinants to be considered in the return to work decision. And that for women aged 55 and over, satisfaction with employment and career, perceived loss by going into retirement, financial status, length of employment, career regularity, time employment were the most important determinants compared to men in explaining the return to work decision. Regarding the choice of the form of bridge employment, the results showed that attachment to work for reasons of knowledge transfer and favorable working conditions in initial employment before retirement helped to explain the choice of bridge employment in the career field. These determinants were significant only for women. These results reinforce the idea of diversity in the motivations behind the trajectories at the end of career observed in previous studies and above all highlight the differences that exist between men and women.  Key Words: Retirement, return to work, bridge employment, active aging, gender, older workers. 

Keyphrases: Retirement, Return to work, Bridge employment, Active aging, Gender, Older workers