Retirement

Retirement is conceptualized as late-life labor force withdrawal after a substantial period of commitment to working for pay for one or more employers, or self-employment in business or a profession. Understanding the pathways to retirement and the nature of the retirement experience for individuals is important in part because retirement is considered a stage of the human life span (or life course). This entry describes the stages of life in terms of the relevancy to retirement, along with identification of the challenges of measuring retirement. A brief history of retirement as a life stage is also presented.