Document Type
Working Paper
Date of this Version
8-2022
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the US labor market, leading to an unprecedented loss of 22 million jobs in March and April 2020. Evidence from past recessions indicates that economic downturns are typically associated with an increase in retirements. In this study, we revisit the relationship between recessions and retirement in the COVID-19 era, using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) supplemented by other data on economic and COVID conditions. We find that higher unemployment is associated with an increase in the probability of transitioning from employment to being out of the labor force during the pre-pandemic period, consistent with previous studies. Surprisingly, however, retirement transitions during the pandemic have been insensitive to local labor market conditions. Our finding that the probability of retirement increased during the pandemic but that retirements are largely unrelated to local economic or COVID conditions points to a potential role for common national factors such as generalized health concerns, government policies, or stock market gains.
Keywords
retirement, unemployment, recession, pandemic
JEL Code
D1, D9, J6, E6
Working Paper Number
PRC WP2022-20
Disclosure
Zhang acknowledges funding from the Jerome A. Schiff Fellowship.
Copyright/Permission Statement
All findings, interpretations, and conclusions of this paper represent the views of the authors and not those of the Wharton School or the Pension Research Council. © 2022 Pension Research Council of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge helpful comments from the Wellesley College Economics Research Seminar.
Date Posted: 24 August 2022