When time is running out: A growth curve analysis of older workers' retirement intentions

Abstract

Using dynamic theory and methods, we investigate the phenomenon of older workers who withdraw from paid work while still healthy. We focus on intention to retire as the penultimate stage in the retirement process. We extend socio-emotional selectivity theory to explain the growth of intention to retire. Older workers have a rising perception of time running out but good health allows for an ongoing choice between remaining in work or active retirement. While, in general, older people in poor health have a greater intention to retire than those in good health, we hypothesize that the passage of time motivates the healthy to increase their intention to retire, especially when manager support is low. We examine longitudinal data consisting of three waves of survey responses (2011, 2012, and 2013) from 495 workers in their 50th year and older. We employ growth curve analysis (random coefficient modeling). The findings show that over a 2-year period, in contrast to other older workers whose retirement intention remains stable, individuals in consistently good health but with low manager support demonstrate a growth in intention to retire. That is, we identify the “queue jumpers”: those workers who speeded up their retirement process relative to other older workers.