Working conditions and early retirement - A prospective study of retirement behavior

This article investigates the impact of working conditions on individual retirement for 270 occupations. It combines survey data for estimates of job strains. census data for occupations, and income and social insurance/security data, for the transition from work to retirement for 19,114 Norwegian employees between the ages of 60 and 67. Retirement was identified by a drop in work-related income and studied both jointly and separately for disability and nondisability retirement. including four types of disability. Data were analyzed using logistic regression (competing risk) "duration" models. Findings indicate that disability retirement is related to physical job strains. Among men, both pathways of early retirement are related to low autonomy in job tasks. Furthermore. psychological job stress may reduce nondisability retirement. The findings are discussed in relation to (1) the prospect of reducing early retirement by changing working conditions and (2) who will gain from certain changes in pension systems.