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Key Findings

1. Most U.S. seniors follow nonstandard retirement pathways, such as first transitioning to working part time (13.6 percent of a studied sample), leaving and then reentering the workforce (16.9 percent), or staying in full- or part-time posts past age 70 (25.7 percent).
2. This study explored how cognitive ability and personality traits predicted retirement paths. Seniors with better cognitive ability were more likely to follow nonstandard retirement pathways, with 59.1 percent with high cognitive ability having jobs after age 65. High scorers also were likely to stay in the workforce after age 70.
3. Extroverts were more likely to follow nonstandard paths and work for pay after age 65, but they also appear more likely to move to part-time work without fully retiring by age 70.

The researchers examined the labor market histories of thousands of individuals from their mid-50s to their early 70s, classifying them into eight distinct retirement pathway categories. They found that some transition to part-time work (13.6 percent of respondents in the RAND study sample), while others leave the workforce and subsequently reenter (16.9 percent); many remain in full- or part-time jobs past age 70 (25.7 percent), but less than half of these most-tenacious workers (9.8 percent of the total sample) stay in full-time positions. These numbers reinforce earlier studies that were based on smaller samples and shorter follow-up periods and that used less-detailed retirement pathway categories.