Socio-economic factors in life trajectories to retirement

Leroy O. Stone, Statistics Canada and University of Montreal
Hasheem Nouroz, Statistics Canada
Alexandre Genest, Human Resources Development Canada

This poster presents selected results of the application of new principles and procedures for mapping and classifying a large number of trajectories of transitions from work to the state of being retired. Distributions of population and key socio-economic differentials are shown for five major properties of the trajectories, based on data for members of the 1996 Panel of the Canadian longitudinal Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID). The properties illustrated are speed of closure of a trajectory, exposure to events that increase risk of reductions in standard of living in retirement, flexibility in the work-to-retirement transition, instability of labour market status, and propensity to return to the labour market after leaving it.