Friday, October 9, 2009: 10:00 AM
Labor force participation rates for older males (ages 55 – 64 and 65+) declined steadily from 1948 until the mid-1990s. For males age 55 – 64, the decline was from nearly 90% in 1949 to about 64% in early 1994; for men 65 and over, from about 46% in 1948 to less than 16% by the end of 1993. (http://www.bls.gov/cps/data.htm) Then, labor force participation for both age groups began to rise, and have risen fairly steadily over the last decade-and-a-half [to about 71% (about a 10% increase) and 22% (about a 35% increase), respectively]. While the recent declines in teen labor force participation rates have been examined (Aaronson, et al., 2006; Coffin, 2007; Kirkland, 2002), the equally significant changes in older male labor force participation have gone largely unremarked. In this paper, I examine the causes of the changes in older male labor force participation using both a time-series approach (using BLS data on labor force participation and other relevant data) and a cross-section/time-series approach using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.
Aaronson; Daniel; Park, Kyung-Hong; and Sullivan, Daniel (2006). ”The Decline in Teen Labor Force Participation.” Economic Perspectives. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (Vol. 30, No. 1), pp. 2-18.
Coffin, Donald A. (2007). “Understanding the Decline in the Labor Force Participation of Teenagers.” Journal of the Indiana Academy of Social Sciences. Vol. XI, pp. 99-09/
Kirkland, Katie (2002). “Declining Teen Labor Force Participation.” Issues in Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils49.pdf.