Bridge Employment after Involuntary Retirement: A Bridge to Better Postretirement Well-Being of Older Adults?

Ellen Dingemans, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Kène Henkens, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)

The increased popularity of bridge employment has raised questions on its consequences for well-being in late adult life. The central question of this research was to what extent bridge employment can smooth the retirement transition in terms of life satisfaction of older adults. This study empirically examines the impact of bridge employment conditional on the nature of the retirement transition. Ten-year panel data on Dutch older adults were investigated using multilevel fixed effects models. The results showed that involuntary retirement was detrimental for life satisfaction. When involuntary retirement was followed by full-time retirement the level of life satisfaction decreased. In contrast, forced retirees who took up bridge employment in their retirement transition did not face a reduction in life satisfaction. For voluntary retirees, bridge employment was not of influence on their level of satisfaction with life.