Lifetime Allocation of Work and Leisure.

Abstract

Concentrating on the trend toward early retirement in the United States and the factors responsible for it, this study draws comparisons between the work and leisure pattern in the United States, with its growing tendency toward retirement below age 65, and the patterns of certain western European nations (principally the United Kingdom, West Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland). There the author finds no comparable trend toward early retirement, and in some cases finds encouragement of workers to remain in the labor force beyond age 65. It is suggested that there may be advantages, both to the individual worker and to the economy, in distributing (and therefore financing) added leisure within the framework of working life, possibly through longer vacation periods, retraining programs, and shorter work weeks. The document includes a chart, 12 tables, and notes on census data for comparisons between and within countries over time with respect to labor force activity rates. (ly)