Delayed retirement: A new trend?
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By Yves Carrière and Diane Galarneau
The employment rate of individuals 55 or over has grown noticeably in recent years. From 1997 to 2010, it rose from 30.5% to 39.4% for men and from 15.8% to 28.6% for women.
This strong growth seems at odds with the stability of the average retirement age since 2004. The apparent contradiction is in part the result of the influence of the age structure of workers on the average retirement age, making the average retirement age a poor indicator of recent changes in retirement behaviour.
A more representative indicator of the retirement decisions of Canadians can be constructed on the basis of methods used to calculate life expectancy.
This expected working-life indicator shows a significant increase in delayed retirement starting in the mid-1990s. In 2008, a 50-year-old Canadian could expect to be working for 16 years, compared to 14 years in 1977.
The recent trend to delayed retirement also stabilized the expected length of retirement. The working-life tables show that the expected length of retirement increased from 1977 to the mid-1990s and has since remained relatively stable. The expected length of retirement expressed as a percentage of total life expectancy starting at age 50 was about the same in 2008 as in 1977.
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