ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on differences and similarities between labor force participation and several other concepts of retirement. It argues that retirement and labor force withdrawal mean different things to workers and to family economic status depending on the nature of each nation's disability, unemployment and retirement system, and on their labor market institutions. The chapter reviews some of the potential uses and operational meanings of the term 'retirement' and the seismic demographic transition which prompts wide policy interest. The bottom line is in one sense straightforward; labor force withdrawal is still continuing at early ages in most wealthy nations. Many people view labor force withdrawal and retirement as synonymous, but research has shown that retirement patterns are many and varied. America, as most other industrialized nations, has witnessed a significant increase in early labor force withdrawal during the post-war period.