Abstract
Kevin E. Cahill, Michael D. Giandrea, and Joseph F. Quinn (2012)
"The Relationship between Work Decisions and Location Later in Life"
To what extent does continued work later in life in the form of bridge job employment impact
the relocation decisions of older Americans? Continued work later in life has been suggested as a
way for older workers to help maintain their standard of living in retirement, by increasing income
in the near term and simultaneously delaying the date at which assets are drawn down. While the
financial benefit of continued work is straightforward and potentially large, the ripple effects of
continued work can impact the lives of older Americans in many other ways. This paper focuses on
relocation decisions following career employment. We use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), an
ongoing nationally-representative longitudinal survey of older Americans that began in 1992, to
explore the frequency and determinants of relocations among career workers who moved to a bridge
job relative to those who exited from the labor force directly. For both groups we find that
long-distance relocations following career employment were infrequent, as less than one in twenty
career workers moved to a new Census Division. Moves that involved a change in “area” or change in
residence, however, were much more common, with a frequency at the time of transition from career
employment of 9 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Most importantly, the frequency of moves was
similar for those who took bridge jobs and those who exited directly, as were key determinants of
moves, suggesting that continued work does not significantly limit or promote relocations.
Last Modified Date: October 17, 2012
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