Is Retirement Being Remade? Developments in Labor Market Patterns at Older Ages

This chapter investigates non-traditional work and retirement patterns among older individuals in the Health and Retirement Study. We first review the evidence on retirements that initially involve bridge jobs or some form of partial retirement. We then focus our analysis on retirement reversals in which individuals resume or increase work activity following a period of retirement. Almost one third of the individuals in the sample who are ever partially or fully retired make at least one transition from more to less retired during the period of observation. We explore the characteristics of the individuals who make these types of transitions.