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Changing work: Mid-to-late life transitions in employment

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Abstract

Job transition is an important, though largely unexplored aspect of work. The Centre for Research into the Older Workforce (CROW) conducted a survey of 5,200 people asking about their recent job transition. The experience of job transition in mid-to-late working life is discussed as a precursor to retirement and working beyond normal retirement ages. Three types of older worker were identified in this survey and dubbed: ‘choosers’, ‘survivors’ and ‘jugglers’. Each of these has different reason for making a job change and consequently different reasons for considering working after retirement. Flexible working is an attractive and popular option for ‘bridge’ jobs and for phasing into retirement but current British government policy is focused on equality and diversity and anti-age discrimination in employment practices. Little is being done to encourage more diverse forms of employment opportunities for older workers who either need or want to downshift before leaving work completely.

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Correspondence to Lynda Owen.

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Her research interests are older workers, gender and age discrimination, labor market policy and work organization.

His research interests are older workers, job design, Human Resources practices, age discrimination, labor market trends, industrial relations and public policy.

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Owen, L., Flynn, M. Changing work: Mid-to-late life transitions in employment. Ageing Int. 29, 333–350 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-004-1003-6

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