The aging population of the United States has significant implications for the workforce - challenging what it means to work and to retire in the U.S. In fact, by 2030, one-fifth of the population will be over age 65. This shift has significant repercussions for the economy and key social programs. Due to medical advancements and public health improvements, recent cohorts of older adults have experienced better health and increasing longevity compared to earlier cohorts. These improvements in health enable many older adults to extend their working lives. While higher labor market participation from this older workforce could soften the potential negative impacts of the aging population over the long term on economic growth and the funding of Social Security and other social programs, these trends have also occurred amidst a complicating backdrop of widening economic and social inequality that has meant that the gains in health, improvements in mortality, and access to later-life employment have been distributed unequally. Understanding the Aging Workforce: Defining a Research Agenda offers a multidisciplinary framework for conceptualizing pathways between work and nonwork at older ages. This report outlines a research agenda that highlights the need for a better understanding of the relationship between employers and older employees; how work and resource inequalities in later adulthood shape opportunities in later life; and the interface between work, health, and caregiving. The research agenda also identifies the need for research that addresses the role of workplaces in shaping work at older ages, including the role of workplace policies and practices and age discrimination in enabling or discouraging older workers to continue working or retire.

Contents

• The National Academies of SCIENCES • ENGINEERING • MEDICINE
• COMMITTEE ON UNDERSTANDING THE AGING WORKFORCE AND EMPLOYMENT AT OLDER AGES
• COMMITTEE ON POPULATION
• COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS
• Preface
• Summary
  • STATEMENT OF TASK
  • OVERARCHING FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
  • DEFINING A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR OLDER WORKERS
  • CONCLUSION
• 1. Introduction
  • POPULATION CONTEXT
  • COMMITTEE FORMATION AND STATEMENT OF TASK
  • SITUATING INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL CHARACTERISTICS WITHIN CONTEXTS
  • BOUNDARIES ON THE SCOPE OF THIS REPORT
  • UNDERSTANDING WORK AT OLDER AGES
  • ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT
• I. Part I
  • 2. The Emerging Older Workforce
    • HOW TRENDS IN LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION ARE GENDERED
    • EMPLOYMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF OLDER WORKERS
    • WORK PREFERENCES OF OLDER WORKERS
    • THE CHANGING COMPOSITION OF THE OLDER WORKFORCE
    • DIVERSITY IN LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION PATTERNS
    • THE INITIAL EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND EMPLOYMENT
    • TRENDS IN HEALTH AND DISABILITY
    • CONCLUSION
    • ANNEX
  • 3. Work and Retirement Pathways
    • A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF WORK AND RETIREMENT PATHWAYS
    • THEORETICAL MECHANISMS
    • THE PROXIMAL FORCES THAT SHAPE THE WORK AND RETIREMENT PATHWAYS
    • DISPARITIES AND HETEROGENEITY IN WORK AND RETIREMENT PATHWAYS
    • CHALLENGES AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
    • CONCLUSION
• II. Part II
  • 4. Individual and Social Factors That Influence Employment and Retirement Transitions
    • INDIVIDUAL LEVEL RESOURCES
    • MEANING OF WORK, SATISFACTION OF WORK, AND SENSE OF PURPOSE
    • FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE
    • SOCIAL CAPITAL
    • CROSS-CUTTING THEMES OF INEQUITY: A LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE
    • RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS
  • 5. Workplace and Job Factors
    • THEORETICAL APPROACHES
    • KEY PRACTICES
    • KEY FACTORS OF INFLUENCE
    • IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
    • CONCLUSION
  • 6. Age Discrimination, One Source of Inequality
    • INTRODUCTION
    • DISTINCT FEATURES OF AGEISM
    • FACE-TO-FACE AGEISM: HOW PEOPLE VIEW OLDER WORKERS
    • ASSESSING THE ACCURACY OF AGEIST STEREOTYPES: COGNITIVE CAPABILITIES IN LATER LIFE
    • WORKPLACE AGE DISCRIMINATION AND EXCLUSION: OLDER WORKERS’ REPORTED EXPERIENCE
    • AGE AND JOB PERFORMANCE
    • AGE DISCRIMINATION IN THE LABOR MARKET FOR OLDER WORKERS
    • CONCLUSION
  • 7. The Labor Market for Older Workers
    • THE LABOR SUPPLY OF OLDER WORKERS
    • FACTORS PRIMARILY AFFECTING THE DEMAND FOR OLDER WORKERS
    • THE BALANCE BETWEEN LABOR SUPPLY AND LABOR DEMAND
    • SUMMARY
  • 8. Public Policy
    • INTRODUCTION
    • NON-AGE-SPECIFIC POLICIES THAT SUPPORT WORK
    • AGE-SPECIFIC POLICIES THAT SUPPORT WORK
    • POLICIES TO SUPPORT THE FINANCIAL SECURITY OF DISABLED AND RETIRED WORKERS
    • CONCLUSIONS
• III. Part III
  • 9. A Research Agenda to Promote Understanding of Employment among Older Workers
    • DEFINING A RESEARCH AGENDA
    • CONCLUSION
• References
• Appendix A. Meeting Agendas
• Appendix B. Committee Biosketches

Suggested citation:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Understanding the Aging Workforce: Defining a Research Agenda. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26173.

Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26173

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022946343

Additional copies of this publication are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.

Printed in the United States of America.