Most people are familiar with the concept of life expectancy, stating the number of years a given person is expected to live from the current date, dependent upon varying demographic characteristics.  A worklife expectancy is similar, stating the number of years somebody is expected to work between now and the end of his or her life expectancy.

Many laypersons (and some experts) assume that this is the number of years until the person turns 65, the historic age for full social security retirement.  This assumption is incorrect for two basic reasons:  many people retire at different ages (usually earlier) and the average person has some breaks in employment (perhaps involuntary) before retirement.

Economists and demographers have developed several different statistical methods of measuring worklife expectancy.  The results of which can be summarized as follows:

• Worklife expectancy is usually less than the number of years to the person's 65th birthday.
• Education is an important variable, with substantial increases in worklife expectancy as the level of education increases.
• Gender is important, given the tendency for women to be more likely to remain home for child rearing.
• Disability status plays a major role as demonstrated on the worklife tables page.  (The US Census Bureau provides on its website the definition of work disability upon which our worklife tables are based.)  

Last Modified 08/07/2003

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