ABSTRACT
Until recently early retirement was the norm in many industrialised nations, but of late a new consensus has emerged around the need to extend working lives. This has occurred against a background of population ageing and dire warnings about the sustainability of social welfare systems and problems of declining labour supply, made more acute by current global economic uncertainty. In this context, influential bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (see Keese 2006) are calling for greater efforts from industrialised nations to prolong working lives, with new public policies emerging which aim to combat age barriers and extend careers (Taylor 2008). Demographic and economic changes have resulted in a new retirement landscape. Individuals in the industrialised world are becoming healthier and living longer and the traditional life course is changing, with an ‘Emphasis on a more blended lifecycle [which] can allow for integration and continuation rather than demarcation between phases of life' (Curl and Hokenstad 2006: 87). Furthermore, at the corporate level and beyond the global economic downturn significant labour shortages are anticipated due to demographic change, with employers needing to do more to attract and retain older workers (Szinovacz 2011).
