BLS WORKING PAPERS

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Office of Productivity and Technology

Unretirement in the 2010s: Prevalence, Determinants, and Outcomes

Kevin E. Cahill, ECONorthwest and The Center on Aging & Work at Boston College

Michael D. Giandrea, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Joseph F. Quinn, Department of Economics Boston College

Working Paper 529

September 16, 2020
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Unretirement in the 2010s: Prevalence, Determinants, and Outcomes

Kevin E. Cahill

ECONorthwest and 

The Center on Aging & Work 

at Boston College

Michael D. Giandrea

U.S. Bureau of Labor 

Statistics

Joseph F. Quinn

Department of Economics

Boston College

September 16, 2020

Abstract

For several decades a sizable minority of older Americans have reentered the labor force after an 

initial retirement, or “unretired.” The percentage who have done so has remained remarkably 

stable over the years. While measures of unretirement differ across studies, by one measure 

between 10 to 20 percent of older career workers reenter the labor after leaving for two or more 

years. This paper explores whether unretirements have been increasing in recent years, most 

notably in the aftermath of the Great Recession and the slow but persistent economic recovery 

that followed. We use data on four cohorts of older career workers from the longitudinal Health 

and Retirement Study (HRS) from 1992 through 2016 and examine the prevalence of reentry 

over time among each one. We find that reentry continues to play an important role in the 

retirement process of older Americans, with rates more or less consistent across cohorts. Most 

notably, we do not find evidence of a shift in the prevalence of unretirements in recent years.

JEL Classifications: J26, J14, J32, H55, K13

Keywords: Economics of Aging, Unretirement, Gradual Retirement

All views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of 

ECONorthwest or the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
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1 Introduction

Has the prevalence of unretirement increased since the Great Recession? Unretirement is 

the process by which an individual exits the labor force later in life (“retires”) and later returns to 

paid work. Studies vary with respect to what distinguishes a job change later in life generally 

from an unretirement, with the length of time an individual needs to be out of the labor force

being a key attribute. Other factors can matter as well, such as the degree to which subjective 

assessments should be taken into account. Not surprisingly, then, the prevalence of unretirement 

depends on how unretirement is defined, and might therefore be best described in terms of a 

range. Under this lens, studies on unretirement have found that a sizable minority of older 

Americans with career jobs, between 15 and 25 percent, exit the labor force and return to paid 

work. A question remains as to whether this prevalence has changed since the Great Recession 

and the sluggish recovery that ensued. 

One reason the prevalence of reentry might not have changed is that the retirement 

income landscape has evolved considerably since the mid-1980s and, while changes have

occurred with respect to labor force participation, retirement patterns have remained diverse

(Alcover, et al., 2014; Cahill, Giandrea, & Quinn, 2015a,b; Quinn, 1999, 2010; Quinn, 

Burkhauser, & Meyers, 1990; Wang & Shultz, 2010; Wang, Penn, Bertone, & Stefanova, 2014). 

For example, among older career workers the prevalence of bridge employment has remained 

between 50 percent and 60 percent since at least the mid-1990s, and even earlier (Quinn, 1999; 

Ruhm, 1990). The prevalence of phased retirement has persistently been below 10 percent since 

the mid-1990s as well. Moreover, research on the impacts of macroeconomic changes on 

retirement patterns finds that the prevalence of bridge and phased retirement changed minimally

in the years surrounding the Great Recession (Cahill, Giandrea, & Quinn, 2015a). Reentry is a 
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form of gradual retirement, so these results might suggest that its prevalence might also not have 

changed meaningfully despite changes in the retirement income landscape, the macroeconomic 

environment, or the intersection between the two.

Alternatively, the 18-month recession that occurred from 2007 to 2009 was deep, and the 

sluggish growth that persisted was unlike any other since World War II. Unemployment reached 

double digits, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 2.8 percent in the year 2009, and it 

took 16 quarters (4 years) for GDP to reach its prerecession level. In the early 1980s it took 

seven quarters for GDP to “bounce back” and reach its pre-recession high, in the early 1990s it 

took five quarters, and in the early 2000s it took just one quarter. Further, since the end of the 

Great Recession GDP growth has hovered around 2 percent annually, with some years 

experiencing lower growth (1.6% in 2011 and 2016) and other years experiencing higher growth 

(2.9% in 2015 and 2018), but no year having annual GDP growth exceeding even three percent

(Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2019). All told, the economy experienced the most severe 

downtown and the slowest recovery in living memory. It is reasonable to think that such a 

disruption would impact the decision to unretire, by restricting the ability for older Americans to 

find work, by necessitating a return to paid work because of shortfalls in expected retirement 

income, or some combination of the two.

Whether unretirements were impacted by the Great Recession is inherently an empirical 

question, and data from the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study (HRS) can be used to 

address it. The HRS began in 1992 with a core set of respondents aged 51 to 61, plus their 

spouses, regardless of age. This “Core” cohort (n=12,652) has been surveyed every two years 

since 1992 and data are available through 2016. New cohorts of older Americans aged 51 to 56 

(notably a different age range than the Core) have been added to the HRS every six years: the 
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War Babies in 1998 (n=2,529), the Early Boomers in 2004 (n=3,330), and the Mid Boomers in 

2010 (n=4,991). We examine the prevalence and timing of unretirement among each of these 

cohorts and then assess the degree to which changes have occurred since the Great Recession. 

What we find, generally, is that the prevalence of unretirement has persisted in recent years at 

rates similar to those that existed in the 1990s and 2000s.

The next section of the paper provides some background on the prevalence and key 

determinants of unretirement. Section 3 describes the HRS and our methodology for examining 

unretirements. Section 4 presents our findings and Section 5 provides our conclusions and some 

context for our results.

2 Unretirement

Unretirement is a subset of a much broader literature on gradual retirement that includes, 

among other topics, bridge employment and phased retirement (Alcover, et al., 2014; Coile, 

2015; Giandrea, Cahill, & Quinn, 2009). Much of this literature focuses on transitions from 

career employment, with a career job defined using objective criteria, subjective assessments, 

and an objective-subjective blend. One general conclusion is that for most older Americans 

retirement is a process, with reductions in hours, changes in employers, and returns to the labor 

force all being common occurrences (Quinn and Cahill, 2016, 2018).

Beehr and Bennett (2015) present various definitions of career employment and bridge 

employment, as well as retirement, and their “delayed” retirement category would fit into most 

definitions of unretirement or labor force reentry. Likewise, Sargent, Lee, Martin, and Zikic 

(2012) describe how older individuals are “reinventing retirement” by reassessing their later-life 

goals and changing their expectations regarding work and leisure at the ends of their careers. 

Sargent et al. present two models of retirement: a more traditional one where retirement is an 
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accepted and well-defined aspect of life, but where timing and activities pursued may be 

different than what is historically expected; and another where traditional retirement is not 

pursued, and instead different workplace and leisure pathways are developed. Both Beehr and 

Bennett (2015) and Sargent et al. (2012) provide analysis frameworks that can help researchers 

formulate models of retirement and reentry.

Maestas (2010) analyzed the expectations and prevalence what she termed 

“unretirement” using the first six waves (1992-2002) of the Health and Retirement Study. 

Maestas used self-reported information regarding retirement, coupled with information about an 

individual’s labor force activity to classify people as employed, partially retired, or retired. The 

addition of the subjective “retired” classification allows Maestas to separate simple job churn 

from an individually meaningful assessment of retirement and a reduction in labor force 

attachment. In contrast, Cahill, Quinn, and Giandrea rely on a purely objective measure of 

reentry using data from the Health and Retirement Study that focuses on those who have had a 

career job—defined as employment for 1,600 or more hours per year for 10 or more years—

and requires zero hours of paid work in two consecutive surveys. Because the surveys are about 

two years apart, this criteria means that individuals are out of the labor force for at least two 

years, and likely longer depending on the timing of initial retirement and subsequent reentry. 

To reinforce the importance of the definition of retirement in the literature, consider an 

example with these two papers. An individual leaves a career job in May, 1996 and is 

interviewed by the HRS in June, 1996. In this survey she reports that she works zero hours and 

describes herself as retired. In May of 1998 she takes a new job working part time. In the June, 

1998 survey she would report this labor force activity. Cahill, et al. would describe this transition 

as a switch to a (part-time) bridge job and not reentry. Maestas would report this as unretirement 
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to part-time employment (if the respondent reports herself as not retired in the 1998 survey) or to 

partial retirement (if she still reports herself as retired in the 1998 survey even though she works 

part-time). The earliest transition of this individual where Cahill et al. would describe this as 

labor force reentry after retirement would be if she took a job following the 1998 survey, thereby 

being out of the labor force for at least two years. 

Maestas found that about 25 percent of retirees unretired over the time period. Those who 

initially retired at younger ages, in their early to mid-50s, were more likely to unretire. Using 

information on retirement expectations among individuals, Maestas also found that over 80 

percent of those who worked after retirement expected to do so. Finally, Maestas considers some 

of the characteristics of the post-retirement jobs. She finds that occupations and industries tend to 

be similar to pre-retirement work, and that wages and benefits on unretirement and partialretirement jobs are lower than they were pre-retirement. Cahill and his coauthors found that 

under their relatively strong definitional constraints, approximately 15 percent of retired, careerjob workers reenter the labor force after two or more years of retirement. Further, the vast 

majority of these reentry transitions were voluntary.

Pleau and Shauman (2012) present a study of unretirement using a sample of individuals 

50 and over from the Current Population Survey (CPS) data, spanning 1977 through 2009. The 

authors linked respondents across adjacent March CPS supplements enabling them to observe 

individuals twice. Individuals are deemed to be retired if they report not being in the labor force 

in the first March CPS survey in which they are observed. In the subsequent March CPS survey, 

respondents may still be retired, or may have reentered the labor force in either part-time (fewer 

than 35 hours per week) or full-time employment. Their findings are similar to those of Maestas 

(2010), Cahill et al. (2011), and others where younger retirees are more likely to unretired. 
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Likewise, those with higher education are more likely to unretire, but those with higher 

retirement income are less likely to unretire. The probability of unretiring did change over time, 

though. Over the first half of the time period, the reentry rate varied some but was largely flat 

around three percent. Over the second half of the time period, the likelihood of unretiring 

increased for both men and women, although the increase was not large.

With the advent of new data sources on older individuals around the world, there has 

been increased attention on labor force activity and retirement transitions. Platts, Corna, Worts, 

McDonough, Price, and Glaser (2019) examine the prevalence and determinants of unretirement 

among older individuals in Britain. Using a pair of unbalanced panel data sets, the British 

Household Panel Survey and the Understanding Society survey, the authors tracked the labor 

force transitions of over 2,000 individuals in their 50s and 60s. In their study, individuals are 

considered retired if they worked after age 40 in at least one of the surveys, and subsequently 

report they are retired from paid work and declare that they work zero hours in a typical week. 

Individuals are considered partially retired if they report being retired from paid work, but still 

report more than zero, but less than 30 hours of paid work in a typical week. 

Platts, et al. follow Maestas (2010) by identifying unretirement as a move towards more 

labor force activity, i.e. moving from fully retired to partial retirement or to full or part-time 

employment, or additionally, moving from partial retirement to full-time employment (more than 

30 hours in a typical week). Platts, et al. also conduct a survival analysis using a Cox modelling 

procedure and find that men were 26 percent more likely to unretire than women, other things 

equal. Similar to the findings of Cahill, et al. (2011) and Maestas (2010), those born in the 1950s 

were 50 percent more likely to be unretired than those born in the 1940s. Finally, those with 

more education and those in better health were both more likely to unretire. 
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In another analysis using international data, Platts and Glaser (forthcoming) compare 

unretirement in the United Kingdom, Russia, and Germany. Using data from the German SocioEconomic Panel Study, the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, and the British Household 

Panel Survey and Understanding Society survey, the authors estimated Cox regression models to 

determine the factors most related to unretirement. Platts and Glaser use Maestas’s (2010) 

definition of retirement and unretirement and find cumulative hazard rates of unretirement of 17 

percent among Germans, 26 percent among the British, and 42 percent among Russians. They 

explain these rates, in part, with a thorough discussion of the differing old-age financial systems 

across the countries. As other researchers have found, factors that most affect the likelihood of 

unretiring include being younger when first retiring, being more highly educated, and healthier.

Continued analysis of the rich U.S. data sources has also increased our understanding of 

labor force behavior in recent years. Jacobs and Piyapromdee (2016), for example, use a model 

of burnout and recovery among older workers to examine both types of transitions in the United 

States. They construct a sample of older men from the first ten waves of the Health and 

Retirement Study (1992-2010). The detailed questions and longitudinal nature of the HRS allows 

them to focus on the burnout, recovery, and reentry of older men, and seek to explain the causes 

of partial retirement and unretirement in the sample. Jacobs and Piyapromdee focus on those 

who report “retirement” and “boredom or burnout”—approximately 50 percent of the sample 

who stopped work. Burnout is identified by determining the rate of transfer from full-time to 

part-time work and from work to non-work, by experience and age category. The authors find 

that the burnout and recovery process is responsible for approximately 40 percent of 

unretirement and about one-quarter of shifts to part-time employment (a form of partial 

retirement). Moreover, the data reveal that respondents who reenter the labor force report lower 
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levels of job stress than those who had been working and continued work, without a break for an 

initial retirement.

Kail (2012) focuses on the role of health insurance in the unretirement process of early

retirees, before they become Medicare eligible under most circumstances at age 65. Kail (2012) 

defines an individual as retired if they report themselves as being retired and have zero-hour 

work week on average. Using this definition Kail finds unretirement rates higher than those in 

Cahill et al. (2011) and similar to those found by Maestas (2010). Kail also finds that the type of 

insurance coverage has a substantial effect on unretirement. Having private, non-group health 

insurance increased the likelihood of returning to both part-time and full-time work, while 

having publicly provided insurance reduced the likelihood of reentering to part-time employment 

(and full-time work, although not by a statistically significant amount). Finally, Kail finds that 

having no health insurance (again, relative to having employer-provided insurance) greatly 

increases the odds of returning to full-time employment. These results differ from those of 

Maestas (2010) and Cahill et al. (2011) who did not find statistically significant effects for health 

insurance coverage. This may be due to the sample of individuals below Medicare eligibility age 

or to the different health insurance specification.

Kail and Warner (2013) consider the effects of gender and of the industry of preretirement employment, among other factors, on labor force re-entry. They use data from the 

HRS (1992 to 2008) and limit the sample to men and women aged 51 to 86 years old who were 

working in their first HRS interview. They further require an individual to be fully retired in at 

least one survey wave, defined by Kail (2012)—an average of zero hours worked per week and 

self-identified as retired. Kail and Warner find that, compared to men, women are more likely to 

remain in retirement than to reenter into full-time employment. On the other hand, the 
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cumulative risk of reentry to part-time employment is greater for women than men. The effect of 

the respondent’s career industry is negligible except among the youngest male retirees, where 

Kail and Warner find that those who retired from goods-producing industries before age 56 are 

more likely to unretire to full-time employment than those who retired from service-producing 

industries.

Pleau (2010) also focused on gender differences in post-retirement employment among 

older Americans. Using the HRS (1992-2006) Pleau estimates a hazard model of unretirement 

based on respondents who were employed in 1992 and subsequently self-reported being retired, 

either fully or partially. Notably, because partial retirement is considered part of the retirement 

state, no period of being completely out of the labor force is required for unretirement to occur. 

Pleau finds that about 50 percent of men and 43 percent of women unretired. The author also 

finds that married women have a lower likelihood of unretiring than married men. Wealth also

had a negative effect on the likelihood of unretiring for women relative to me, while income had 

a positive effect. In general, Pleau finds that men and women may approach unretirement 

differently and different factors may help determine the likelihood of reentry across sexes.

This paper extends the retirement literature by focusing on the prevalence of reentry in 

the aftermath of the Great Recession.

3 Data and Methods

The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is an ideal dataset for examining the prevalence 

of unretirement among older Americans. The HRS is both longitudinal and nationally 

representative and now spans nearly a quarter century (Karp, 2007; Survey Research Center, 

2017). This paper focuses on the original “Core” sample that was interviewed in 1992 

(n=12,652), and that has been followed with biennial surveys since that time, through 2016. We 
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also use data for the War Babies, first interviewed in 1998 (n=2,529), the Early Boomers, first 

interviewed in 2004 (n=3,330), and the Mid Boomers, first interviewed in 2010 (n=4,991). The 

Late Boomers, introduced in 2016, are not used in this analysis because their transitions from 

career employment have yet to take place. 

All four of the HRS cohorts were interviewed biennially since their first interview and, 

with the exception of the Core set of respondents who were aged 51 to 61 at the time of the first 

survey, were aged 51 to 56 at the time of their first interview. The biennial surveys, which 

contain detailed information about work status both at the time of the survey and the time 

between surveys, can be used to construct individual work histories for each respondent. The 

questions in the HRS survey also provide detailed information on retirement determinants, such 

as health status, pension status, and occupation, as well as demographic, economic, and financial 

characteristics of both the respondents and their spouses.

Our analysis of unretirement focuses on individuals who had a career job, in order to 

avoid mischaracterizing as unretired individuals who have had intermittent work histories, and 

perhaps a lifetime of labor force entries and exists. A full-time career job (FTC) is defined as one 

that consists of 1,600 or more hours per year (full time) with 10 or more years of tenure (career). 

An unretirement is a gradual retirement path in which an individual who has had a career job 

since age 49 returns to paid work after having left the labor force for at least two years. The

individual’s initial retirement (i.e., when the individual first left the labor force for at least two 

years) could have taken place immediately following career employment or could have taken

place after a period of bridge employment, with the period of bridge employment taking place 

within two years of career employment. In prior research we have explored different definitions 

of career employment, bridge employment, and unretirement, and have found the overall 
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conclusions regarding gradual retirement to be similar qualitatively, albeit with different 

quantitative outcomes. 

We begin our analysis with respondents who were working on a FTC job at the time of 

their first interview. We then use the longitudinal data to construct work histories for each cohort 

through the most recent survey. Information is available in the HRS on jobs prior to the first 

interview, but this information is collected retrospectively, which could raise concerns about 

recall bias. Further, the information about each past job is less detailed than the information 

collected in each wave about the individual’s current job. We decide not to use information prior 

to the first interview as a result. 

We examine the determinants of unretirement in addition to its prevalence. Our analysis 

of determinants begins with a series of bivariate comparisons that focuses on those demographic 

and economic characteristics that have been identified in the literature as being related to 

retirement. Time-varying variables, such as health, are measured as of the survey prior to the 

individual’s reentry for those who unretire and in the wave prior to leaving career employment 

for those who do not. We estimate logistic regression models for men and women separately 

with the dependent variable equal to one if an individual reenters and zero otherwise. For cohort 

differences, we estimate separate models by cohort and we estimate a combined model with 

dichotomous indicators for each cohort, with the Core as the reference group.

4 Results

More than 8 out of 10 of the HRS men (86% = 9,312 / 10,871) had work experience since 

age 49 and more than half were on a FTC job at the time of their first interview (Table 1). 

Among women, more than 7 out of 10 (72% = 9,065 / 12,631) had work experience since age 49 

and more than one third were on a FTC job at the time of their first interview. Cross-cohort 
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differences with respect to the prevalence of FTC employment at the time of the first interview 

were more pronounced among the men than the women. The prevalence of FTC employment as 

of the first survey ranged from 52 percent (Mid Boomers) to 68 percent (War Babies) among the 

men and from 38 percent (HRS Core) to 40 percent (War Babies) among the women. 

When respondents are restricted to just those who are age-eligible—between the ages of 

51 and 61 for the HRS Core and ages 51 to 56 for the War Babies, Early Boomers, and Mid 

Boomers—the prevalence of FTC employment remained similar across cohorts (44% to 60% 

among the men; 26% to 34% among the women). Notably, with this age range restriction, the 

prevalence of FTC employment as of the first wave declined more so among the HRS Core 

women than among the other cohorts of women (12 percentage points among the HRS Core and 

between 4 to 9 percentage points for the other cohorts).

Career self-employment was about twice as common among men than women at the time 

of the first survey. Approximately one in five men and one in ten women were self-employed on 

their career job, with prevalence somewhat lower among the younger cohorts. This finding is 

consistent with prior research on self-employment transitions at older ages.

We examine the prevalence of reentry across the cohorts, stratified by gender and sector 

(i.e., wage-and-salary and self-employment), using different follow-up periods. The different 

follow-up periods allow us to assess whether differences in prevalence are due to the length of 

the follow-up period (longer time period to observe reentries) or to true differences in the 

prevalence of reentry within a set number of years following the first interview. The first set of 

analyses includes all available data through 2016, which yields a follow-up period that ranges 

from 24 years among the HRS Core (1992 to 2016) to just 6 years among the Mid Boomers 

(2010 to 2016). 
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Using all available data 16 percent of the Core wage-and-salary men and 15 percent of 

the Core wage-and-salary women reentered the labor force after being out for at least two years 

(Table 2). Among the wage-and-salary War Babies, these percentages were 13 percent and 16 

percent, respectively—that is, more or less similar to that among the Core respondents. In 

contrast, just 8 percent of the Early Boomer men and 9 percent of the Early Boomer women had 

reentered by 2016. The large majority of the reentry jobs—roughly between two thirds and three 

quarters—were part time. 

The second set of analyses use a 12-year follow-up period (7 survey waves; the initial 

survey plus 6 additional ones) for the HRS Core, War Babies, and Early Boomers. With the 

follow-up period held constant, reentry rates for the wage-and-salary HRS Core respondents 

were identical to those for the wage-and-salary Early Boomers—eight percent among the men 

and nine percent among the women. Reentry rates were slightly higher (two to three percentage 

points) among the wage-and-salary War Baby respondents. The prevalence of part-time reentry 

jobs was also lower (56% to 67%) when the follow-up period was restricted to 12 years, with 

slightly higher percentages among the War Babies compared with the other cohorts.

The relatively small sample sizes among the self-employed respondents limit the extent 

to which reentry rates can be compared across cohorts, but using data through 2016 suggests that 

rates are slightly higher among the self-employed respondents compared with the wage-andsalary ones. Further, in contrast to the wage-and-salary men, when the follow-up period is 

restricted to 12 years, reentry rates among the self-employed men increased across cohorts, from 

10 percent among the HRS Core to 15 percent among the Early Boomers. At this time, it is not 

possible to discern if this pattern is meaningful because the sample sizes among the self-
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employed group are small. The addition of the 2018 HRS data could help determine if these

patterns are meaningful. 

A bivariate analysis of reentry rates by cohort reveals several notable patterns. The 

patterns are most pronounced among the HRS Core and the War Babies, as might be expected 

because the follow-up period is longer among these groups than it is for the Early Boomers and 

the Mid Boomers. First, among both men and women, reentry rates declined with age. 

Individuals who left their career jobs prior to age 55 were much more likely to reenter later in 

life than were individuals who left their career job after age 65 (Table 3). Reentry rates were also 

higher among those who were in excellent or very good health when they left career employment 

relative to those who were in poor health. Both results are intuitive.

Interestingly, reentry occurs across educational attainment categories with, for example, 

wage-and-salary men with less than a high school education having reentry rates similar to those 

with a college degree (15% and 17%, respectively). Reentry rates by educational attainment were 

also comparable among the women, albeit with a lower reentry prevalence among wage-andsalary women with a high school degree only (11%). Reentry rates were higher among 

respondents who had a working spouse compared with those who did not and, among the War 

Babies and the Early Boomers, reentry rates were somewhat higher among those with dependent 

children compared to those without them. Rates of reentry did not differ meaningfully by 

ethnicity or marital status.

A bivariate analysis of reentry rates by economic and job characteristics provides some 

additional insights about reentry rates (Table 4). First, with the exception of the wage-and-salary 

men, reentry rates for the HRS Core and the War Babies were highest among those with no 

health insurance (21% to 33%) compared with those who had “portable” health insurance (i.e., 
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health insurance is not lost when one leaves their career job (e.g., health insurance is provided 

through a spouse’s employer)) and with those who did not have portable health insurance (9% to 

17%). One explanation for this finding is that at least a portion of individuals who are returning 

to paid work are in a financially precarious situation. Reentry percentages varied by other job 

and economic characteristics but clear patterns are not apparent.

More generally, the analysis in Table 4 shows that the prevalence of defined-benefit (DB) 

pension plans declines between the HRS Core and the Mid Boomer cohorts and the prevalence 

of defined-contribution (DC) plans increases. This finding is consistent with a well-documented 

shift from DB to DC retirement plans that took place in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s

(Butrica, et al., 2009; Copeland, 2009). The availability of employer-provided retiree health 

insurance also declines across cohorts, as does the availability of health insurance from a source 

other than the respondent’s employer (e.g., spouse’s employer). A decline in the availability of 

retiree health insurance over the past several decades has also been well documented in the 

retirement literature (Shoven and Slavov, 2014). These changes to the retirement landscape have 

important implications for retirement income security later in life, and it is notable that reentry 

rates thus far do not seem to vary across these categories. It will be interesting to see if this result 

holds among the younger cohorts in future years.

Another general takeaway from the results in both Tables 3 and 4 is that reentry is not 

restricted to those who are financially vulnerable. Returns to work following an initial retirement 

are clearly not driven by financial necessity alone. More specific to this paper’s objective, an

overall conclusion from the demographic and economic subgroup analyses is that the prevalence 

of reentry is by and large similar across cohorts. The findings from the multivariate analyses

confirm these univariate and bivariate results. 
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We examine the status of transitions as of the seventh wave (12 years for each cohort) in 

order to control for the different follow-up periods across the cohorts. As such, for the purposes 

of the multivariate analysis, we include respondents from the HRS Core, War Babies, and Early 

Boomer cohorts only. The set of determinants includes the demographic and economic 

characteristics from the descriptive analysis plus controls for region (Northeast, Midwest, South, 

West) and year. Finally, we estimate separate models for men and women to account for 

potential differences by gender.

Compared with the wage-and-salary Core respondents, reentry rates were marginally 

significantly lower among the male Early Boomers (OR=.648, p=0.045) and marginally 

significantly higher among the female War Babies (OR=1.425, p=0.089). These results are 

consistent with the reentry percentages reported in Table 2 (Column 6). One possible explanation

for the lower reentry rates among Early Boomer men is that those who left the labor force could 

not find work, which would be consistent with the fact that long-term unemployment among 

older workers spiked after the Great Recession, and persisted for years (Rix, 2013). This 

observation might also apply to the wage-and-salary women, as reentry rates among the Early 

Boomers were lower than those among the War Babies. Importantly, though, these observed 

differences are marginally significant and caution should be taken when interpreting them. As 

more HRS waves become available an investigation into the impacts of the Great Recession on 

the retirement patterns of the Early Boomers would be valuable. 

5 Conclusion

The impact of societal aging can be mitigated through continued work later in life, as the 

old-age dependency ratio—the ratio of retirees to workers—depends not just on demographic 

factors but behavioral ones as well. The rapid pace of societal aging that we are facing today is 
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the result of decisions made decades ago, in particular, the period of low fertility during the 

Great Depression of the 1930s and the post-war Baby Boom that followed. The behavioral side 

of the old-age dependency ratio, in contrast, is not predetermined, as each older American who 

stays in the labor force lowers the numerator and increases the denominator. The decision to 

continue working later or life depends on a multitude of factors that influence the relative 

attractiveness of work and leisure. Further, an important part of this work-leisure decision is the 

way older Americans work, with respect to labor force intensity (hours worked), the types of jobs 

taken, the pathway from career employment to complete labor force withdrawal, and, as 

examined in this paper, the decision to unretire.

What we find is this study is that unretirements are and have been an important part of 

the retirement process for several decades, but that the prevalence of reentry has more or less 

remained unchanged, even during the Great Recession and its aftermath.

Importantly, reentry is just one of three parts of the gradual retirement process. Gradual 

retirement also includes phased retirement (a reduction in career job hours later in life) and 

bridge employment (a job with a new employer following career employment). Bridge 

employment is the most common form of gradual retirement, with a approximately one half of 

older career workers taking on a bridge job. Phased retirement is the least common, with a 

prevalence rate of approximately 10 percent. Collectively, though, the majority of older 

Americans retire gradually in some form, through bridge employment, phased retirement, or 

reentry, or some combination of the three (Cahill, Giandrea, & Quinn, 2006, 2013, 2015a,b, 

2017, 2018). 

This study, along with others that focus on bridge employment and phased retirement, 

reveal that these diverse pathways have persisted for decades and, interestingly, have remained
19

more or less stable throughout the recent economic turmoil of the Great Recession and its 

aftermath. On the one hand, this finding is positive as it shows remarkable flexibility in the work 

decisions of older Americans regardless of the broader economic conditions. On the other hand, 

the stability of gradual retirement prevalence rates suggests that, overall, older Americans are not 

responsive to fairly dramatic changes in the economic environment. This finding might call into 

question the extent to which continued work later in life can serve as a buffer to improve older 

Americans’ financial outlook in the face of future economic disruptions. 

.
20

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1992 1998 2004 2010 1992 1998 2004 2010

51 to 61 51 to 56 51 to 56 51 to 56 51 to 61 51 to 56 51 to 56 51 to 56

Participated in first wave

n 5,869 1,198 1,529 2,275 6,783 1,331 1,801 2,716

Worked since age 50

n 5,359 987 1,096 1,794 5,320 805 1,094 1,881

% of respondents 91% 82% 72% 79% 78% 60% 61% 69%

On FTC job in first interview

n 3,061 811 858 1,175 2,569 529 691 1,085

% of respondents 52% 68% 56% 52% 38% 40% 38% 40%

n 2,649 717 795 1,000 1,791 451 604 847

% of respondents 45% 60% 52% 44% 26% 34% 34% 31%

n 2,089 586 655 862 1,616 406 559 795

% of respondents 79% 82% 82% 86% 90% 90% 93% 94%

n 560 131 140 138 175 45 45 52

% of respondents 21% 18% 18% 14% 10% 10% 7% 6%

Table 1

Sample Size

by Gender, HRS Cohort, and Work Status

Men Women

Self-employed workers

Source: Cahill, Kevin E., Michael D. Giandrea, and Joseph F. Quinn. 2019. “Retirement Patterns of the Early and Middle Baby Boomers.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper, 512 

(April).

Wage-and-salary workers

War Babies Early Boomers Mid Boomers

Year of first interview

Respondent's age at first interview

Age-eligible respondents only

HRS Core War Babies Early Boomers Mid Boomers HRS Core
n

a na

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Wage and Salary

Men

HRS Core (Aged 75 to 85 in 2016) 2,089 16% 70% 1,417 8% 56%

War Babies (Aged 69 to 74 in 2016) 586 13% 76% 586 10% 62%

Early Boomers (Aged 63 to 68 in 2016) 655 8% 60% 655 8% 60%

Mid Boomers (Aged 57 to 62 in 2016) 862 ----- ----- ------ ------ ------

Women

HRS Core (Aged 75 to 85 in 2016) 1,616 15% 75% 1,145 9% 58%

War Babies (Aged 69 to 74 in 2016) 406 16% 77% 406 12% 67%

Early Boomers (Aged 63 to 68 in 2016) 559 9% 57% 559 9% 57%

Mid Boomers (Aged 57 to 62 in 2016) 795 ----- ----- ------ ------ ------

Self-Employed

Men

HRS Core (Aged 75 to 85 in 2016) 560 19% 69% 342 10% 59%

War Babies (Aged 69 to 74 in 2016) 131 18% 73% 131 12% 86%

Early Boomers (Aged 63 to 68 in 2016) 140 15% 67% 140 15% 67%

Mid Boomers (Aged 57 to 62 in 2016) 138 ----- ----- 138 ------ ------

Women

HRS Core (Aged 75 to 85 in 2016) 175 16% 79% 125 5% 50%

War Babies (Aged 69 to 74 in 2016) 45 ----- ----- 45 16% 75%

Early Boomers (Aged 63 to 68 in 2016) 45 ----- ----- 45 ----- -----

Mid Boomers (Aged 57 to 62 in 2016) 52 ----- ----- 52 ------ ------

Notes:

Through 7 HRS Interviews

Reentered 

(%)b

Reentered 

PT (%)c

Table 2

Reentery following Retirement from Full-time Career Employment

Those with Full-Time Career Jobs at the Time of the First Interview, by HRS Cohort, Gender, and Sector

(horizontal percentage)

Reentered 

(%)b Sector, Gender, and Cohort

Through 2016

a Includes respondents on a wage-and-salary or self-employed FTC job at the time of the first interview. Transitions are measured through 

2016 and through the first seven HRS interviews.

b

 Percentage of respondents who returned to paid work after not having worked for at least two consecutive waves at some point following 

career employment.

c

 Percentage of respondents working part time on the reentry job as a percentage of all individuals who reentered. Part-time employment is 

defined as working 1,600 or fewer hours per year.

Source: Adapted from Cahill, Kevin E., Michael D. Giandrea, and Joseph F. Quinn. 2019. “Retirement Patterns of the Early and Middle 

Baby Boomers.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper, 512 (April).

Reentered 

PT (%)c
%

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%)

All 100% 16% 100% 15% 100% 13% 100% 16% 100% 8% 100% 9% 100% -------- 100% --------

Age at transition

<=55 19% 20% 21% 21% 31% 17% 38% 19% 33% 10% 39% 7% 45% -------- 43% --------

56-61 49% 17% 50% 15% 43% 14% 36% 18% 42% 9% 38% 14% 55% -------- 57% --------

62-64 18% 17% 16% 13% 11% 12% 12% 15% 21% 3% 18% 6% ------- ------- ------- -------

65+ 15% 8% 13% 6% 16% 5% 14% 5% ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

Respondent's Health

Excellent/very good 51% 18% 52% 17% 51% 17% 52% 22% 48% 8% 49% 10% 54% -------- 49% --------

Good 32% 15% 31% 13% 35% 8% 31% 12% 32% 9% 32% 8% 31% -------- 33% --------

Fair/poor 17% 12% 18% 9% 14% 13% 17% 8% 20% 8% 19% 10% 15% -------- 18% --------

Education

Less than high school 28% 15% 24% 16% 15% 11% 11% 14% 14% 6% 10% 15% 16% -------- 13% --------

High school 31% 16% 35% 11% 30% 16% 30% 13% 24% 7% 28% 8% 26% -------- 26% --------

College 41% 17% 41% 17% 55% 12% 58% 19% 63% 9% 62% 9% 58% -------- 61% --------

Ethnicity

White 82% 16% 74% 14% 83% 13% 75% 17% 76% 7% 67% 10% 64% -------- 57% --------

Black 14% 16% 22% 17% 13% 17% 21% 14% 12% 13% 22% 8% 23% -------- 34% --------

Other 4% 8% 3% 9% 4% 0% 4% 8% 11% 12% 11% 8% 13% -------- 9% --------

Married

No 21% 15% 44% 15% 32% 8% 54% 17% 20% 6% 45% 10% 22% -------- 45% --------

Yes 79% 16% 56% 14% 68% 15% 46% 16% 80% 9% 55% 9% 78% -------- 55% --------

Dependent Child

No 83% 16% 71% 15% 70% 11% 74% 16% 62% 6% 62% 9% 45% -------- 52% --------

Yes 17% 16% 29% 15% 30% 18% 26% 17% 38% 12% 38% 11% 55% -------- 48% --------

Working Spouse

No 42% 14% 38% 13% 35% 10% 31% 7% 28% 8% 18% 6% 28% -------- 21% --------

Yes 58% 18% 62% 15% 65% 15% 69% 19% 72% 10% 82% 8% 72% -------- 79% --------

Notes:

Source: Adapted from Cahill, Kevin E., Michael D. Giandrea, and Joseph F. Quinn. 2019. “Retirement Patterns of the Early and Middle Baby Boomers.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper, 512 (April).

Men Women Men Women Men Women Men Women

Table 3

Reentery following Retirement from Full-time Career Employment by Worker Characteristics, HRS Cohort, and Gender

Respondents with a Wage & Salary Full-Time Career Job at the Time of the First Interview

HRS Core

Respondents Aged 75-85 in 2016

War Babies

Respondents Aged 69-74 in 2016

Early Baby Boomers

Respondents Aged 63-68 in 2016

Mid Baby Boomers

Respondents Aged 57-62 in 2016
%

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%) %

Reentered 

(%)

All 100% 16% 100% 15% 100% 13% 100% 16% 100% 8% 100% 9% 100% -------- 100% --------

Occupational Status

White collar - high skill 34% 16% 33% 17% 37% 12% 40% 17% 34% 6% 38% 9% 27% -------- 23% --------

White collar - other 12% 17% 37% 13% 17% 15% 34% 19% 17% 5% 36% 14% 19% -------- 41% --------

Blue collar - high skill 26% 17% 9% 15% 24% 13% 8% 4% 25% 11% 11% 2% 35% -------- 21% --------

Blue collar - other 27% 12% 21% 13% 22% 15% 18% 14% 24% 11% 16% 6% 20% -------- 15% --------

Health Insurance Status

None 6% 14% 7% 21% 4% 33% 5% 25% 8% 3% 10% 8% 13% -------- 12% --------

Portable 84% 16% 81% 14% 80% 13% 77% 17% 67% 8% 61% 9% 47% -------- 47% --------

Non-portable 10% 19% 12% 16% 16% 9% 18% 14% 25% 11% 29% 10% 40% -------- 41% --------

Pension Status

Defined-benefit 44% 16% 42% 13% 43% 14% 34% 16% 29% 6% 25% 8% 23% -------- 26% --------

Defined-contribution 25% 18% 28% 17% 37% 13% 41% 17% 43% 10% 53% 10% 49% -------- 47% --------

Both 7% 17% 4% 15% 5% 17% 3% 0% 2% 17% 1% 0% 2% -------- 2% --------

None 23% 13% 27% 13% 16% 10% 22% 20% 26% 10% 21% 14% 26% -------- 24% --------

Wage

<$15 31% 17% 56% 13% 42% 15% 56% 16% 21% 5% 35% 13% -------- -------- -------- --------

$15 to $24 36% 16% 30% 17% 22% 14% 25% 15% 33% 4% 33% 14% 49% -------- 50% --------

$25 to $49 29% 16% 14% 14% 29% 11% 17% 20% 37% 9% 29% 10% 51% -------- 50% --------

$50+ 4% 13% 1% 25% 6% 16% 2% 25% 9% 5% 4% 13% -------- -------- -------- --------

Wealth

$0k 4% 12% 6% 14% 6% 9% 6% 0% 8% 12% 11% 11% 12% -------- 15% --------

$1-$24k 25% 16% 33% 13% 23% 14% 33% 22% 29% 6% 34% 10% 33% -------- 41% --------

$25k - $100k 31% 17% 26% 18% 29% 10% 24% 20% 27% 6% 22% 7% 27% -------- 20% --------

$100k - $500k 32% 14% 29% 14% 31% 16% 24% 13% 23% 14% 23% 10% 22% -------- 18% --------

$500k+ 8% 18% 7% 10% 12% 14% 14% 11% 12% 7% 10% 7% 7% -------- 5% --------

Notes:

Source: Adapted from Cahill, Kevin E., Michael D. Giandrea, and Joseph F. Quinn. 2019. “Retirement Patterns of the Early and Middle Baby Boomers.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper, 512 (April).

Men Women Men Women Men Women Men Women

Table 4

Reentery following Retirement from Full-time Career Employment by Job and Economic Characteristics, HRS Cohort, and Gender

Respondents with a Wage & Salary Full-Time Career Job at the Time of the First Interview

HRS Core

Respondents Aged 75-85 in 2016

War Babies

Respondents Aged 69-74 in 2016

Early Baby Boomers

Respondents Aged 63-68 in 2016

Mid Baby Boomers

Respondents Aged 57-62 in 2016
Odds ratio Odds ratio

Age

51-54 -------- -------- -------- --------

56-61 0.872 0.343 0.737 0.073 *

62-64 0.717 0.077 * 0.601 0.026 **

65 or older 0.371 0.000 *** 0.206 0.000 ***

Health status

Excellent or very good 0.989 0.936 1.101 0.559

Good -------- -------- -------- --------

Fair or poor 1.255 0.214 0.569 0.023 **

Educational attainment

Less than high school 0.779 0.161 1.616 0.039 **

high school -------- -------- -------- --------

college 0.953 0.749 1.109 0.583

Occupation

White collar, highly-skilled -------- -------- -------- --------

White collar, other 1.052 0.804 0.838 0.390

Blue collar, highly-skilled 1.275 0.173 0.483 0.033 **

Blue collar, other 0.839 0.395 0.568 0.045 **

Union 0.873 0.361 1.099 0.632

Pension status

No pension -------- -------- -------- --------

Defined benefit 1.084 0.632 0.675 0.064 *

Defined contribution 1.106 0.554 0.862 0.466

Both 1.040 0.893 0.388 0.057 *

Health insurance

Portable 1.161 0.332 1.045 0.801

Not portable -------- -------- -------- --------

None 0.392 0.003 *** 0.663 0.219

Married 1.441 0.255 0.407 0.018 **

Spouse's health status

Excellent or very good 0.988 0.939 0.826 0.391

Good -------- -------- -------- --------

Fair or poor 0.643 0.034 ** 1.231 0.458

Spouse working 0.471 0.000 *** 0.697 0.092 *

Own home 3.920 0.000 *** 2.784 0.000 ***

Wealth

< $24k 5.099 0.000 *** 3.330 0.000 ***

$25k - $100k -------- -------- -------- --------

> $100k 1.309 0.098 * 1.210 0.348

Cohort

Core -------- -------- -------- --------

War Babies 0.923 0.636 1.425 0.089 *

Early Boomers 0.648 0.045 ** 0.928 0.773

Notes:

Table 5

Odds Ratios from Logistic Regressions

Dependent Variable: Reentry Through the First Seven HRS Interviews

Reentry

Age-Eligible HRS Men and Women on a Full-Time Career Job 

at the Time of the First Interviews

Source: Adapted from Cahill, Kevin E., Michael D. Giandrea, and Joseph F. Quinn. 2019. “Retirement Patterns of the Early and Middle Baby 

Boomers.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper, 512 (April).

Men Women

p-value p-value

[2] Health, spouse's health, marital status, presence of a dependent child, home ownership, wealth, and region are measured in the wave prior to 

reentry for those who reenter.

[1] The following controls (not shown) are also included in the regression: ethnicity, presence of dependent child, wage, and region.