PATHWAYS TO LABOR-FORCE EXIT - WORK TRANSITIONS AND WORK INSTABILITY

The purpose of this study if to examine alternative pathways to labor force exit among older men. Based on the life course perspective, we d istinguish between crisp exits from the labor force, which are charact erized as being unidirectional, and blurred transition patients, which include repeated exits, entrances, and unemployment spells. Using lon gitudinal data from the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participatio n, we find that one-quarter of the sample of men aged 55 to 74 at firs t interview experienced at least one transition in labor force status over a 28-month observation period. Fewer than half of these can be ch aracterized as crisp exists from the labor force. Our multivariate ana lysis suggests that blurred transition patterns are likely part of art effort to maintain economic status in later life.