Beyond Blue and White Collar: Age-Related Decline, Occupation, and Retirement Timing

Abstract

Retirement timing research has accounted for age-related decline in ability to work by classifying occupations as blue or white collar, but this rough categorization may throw out information. Instead, this article presents a susceptibility index that measures how susceptible the abilities required by an occupation are to early decline. The results suggest that (1) considerable variance exists, especially within white-collar occupations, in the importance of abilities that are known to show early decline; (2) this variance, as captured by the index, is predictive of early retirement; and (3) this variance captures more information than the common white- and blue-collar distinction.