Aging & Social Change: Eleventh Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

The aging population in Canada, and elsewhere, has resulted in a lower labour market participation rate which presents challenges including shortages of workers in some industries, and threats to the sustainability of private and public pension plans. As many workers retire involuntarily, there are opportunities to extend working lives. However, neither the concept of involuntary retirement nor its antecedents are well understood. We, therefore examined the concept of involuntary retirement, and its antecedents through a systematic literature review. We then explore the concept of involuntary retirement using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). We found that involuntary retirement can be defined as: limited human agency in the timing (early, on-time or late) or conditions of retirement. Further, while involuntary retirement is essentially a matter of self-perception and voluntariness has been conceptualized as continuous scale, many studies measured it as dichotomously and as reported reasons for retirement such as disability or job loss. Moreover, factors restrict control over the retirement decision, in particular disability and poor health, and retirement timing of retirement, i.e., younger age at retirement and retiring earlier than planned, were the most common and often strongest factors explaining self-perceived involuntary retirement. Examination of recent retirees who participated in the CLSA confirmed our conceptualization of involuntary retirement. The aim of this study is to discuss our concept of involuntary retirement, factors to be included in a future study of antecedents using CLSA data and the implications for policy, practice, and research.