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Labor Market Status of Older Males in the United States, 1880-1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Chulhee Lee
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Abstract

This article explores the labor market status of older males in the early twentieth century, focusing on how the extent of pressure toward retirement differed across occupations and how it changed over time. A comparison of the probability of retirement across occupations shows that men who had better occupations in terms of economic status and work conditions were less likely to retire than were those with poorer jobs. The difficulty faced by older workers in the labor market, as measured by the relative incidence of long-term unemployment, was relatively severe among craftsmen, operatives, and salesmen. In contrast, aged farmers, professionals, managers, and proprietors appear to have fared well in the labor market. The pattern of shifts in the occupational structure that occurred between 1880 and 1940 suggests that industrialization had brought a growth of the sectors in which the pressure toward departure from employment at old ages was relatively strong.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , spring 2005 , pp. 77 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2005 

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