Holding on to a job after age 50 isn’t always easy

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/holding-on-to-a-job-after-age-50-isnt-always-easy-2020-02-07?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

Feb 7, 2020 11:17 a.m. ET

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The researchers at ProPublica and the Urban Institute focused on workers in the U.S. who, beginning in 1992 or later, became 51 years old. By tracking their experiences until the age of 65, the researchers were able to measure what happens to the average worker before reaching traditional retirement age. Believe it or not, as you can see from the accompanying chart, they found that more than half of workers “experience an employer-related involuntary job separation after age 50 that substantially reduces earnings for years or leads to long-term unemployment.”

Note carefully that the disruptions the researchers focused on weren’t just insignificant leaves of absence or demotions. Instead, they only counted “job separations that were followed by at least six consecutive months of non-employment or that led to at least a 50 percent decline in weekly earnings for at least two years.”

Those are serious disruptions.

Only 16% remained in the researchers’ “still working” category at age 65.

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