Derailed by the Covid-19 Economy? An Intersectional and Life Course Analysis of Older Adults' Shifting Work Attachments

Bibliographic Data

ID4939331
AuthorsPhyllis Moen (0000-0001-5704-2824, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA, corresponding author), Joseph H Pedtke (University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA), Sarah Flood (0000-0001-8507-425X, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Year2022
Pages000276422110660
Publication date2022-06-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00027642211066061
OpenAlexW4281776558
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

This paper addresses the uneven employment effects on older Americans (aged 50-75) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on monthly Current Population Survey data from January through December 2020, we take an intersectional and life course approach to study the labor market effects of COVID-19 on older Americans. First, we chart monthly labor force states throughout 2020 for older adult subgroups defined by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. We then examine transitions out of and into work from one month to the next. We find gendered age-graded declines in employment, increases in unemployment, and increases in the proportions of people in their 50s reporting they are not in the labor force for other reasons (NILF-other), most dramatically for Asian and Hispanic women. There is little change in age-graded retirement from before to during the pandemic, regardless of gender or race/ethnicity, though there are education-level effects, with those without a college degree more likely to retire in the face of COVID-19. White men with a college degree are the most apt to retain their work engagement

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnic group · Intersectionality · Life course approach · Pandemic · Population · Race (biology) · Sociology · Unemployment · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Demography · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · Medicine · Psychology · Retirement, Disability, and Employment · Social Psychology · Gerontology