Occupational Licensing in Later Life: Work and Retirement Decisions Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

TL;DR

This study explores how older workers obtain occupational licenses and how it affects their work and retirement choices before and after the pandemic.

Contribution

The study reveals gender-specific changes in later-life licensing and its impact on retirement pathways during and after the pandemic.

Findings

Men's license attainment decreased after the pandemic, while women's increased significantly.

Newly licensed women are more likely to change employers, while newly licensed men are more likely to switch to part-time work.

Later-life licensing contributes to extended work lives through alternative retirement pathways.

Abstract

Attaining occupational licenses is considered a career development option for younger workers because the attainment cost outweighs the benefits for older workers. Contrary to this expectation, a significant proportion of workers attain licenses in their later lives. However, the reasons and outcomes of later-life attainment of occupational licenses are not well-documented. This study investigates and compares the sociodemographic and economic predictors of later-life attainment of occupational licenses and the post-attainment work and retirement decisions before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the sample of respondents aged between 55 and 63 from the Current Population Studies 2018-2019 (men = 1,927 and women = 1,576) and 2023-2024 (men = 1,501 and women = 1,182), I first conduct logistic regressions to examine the predictors of later-life attainment. Then, I use clustered competing risk analysis with propensity score matching to compare the choice of retirement pathways of newly licensed and unlicensed workers in pre- and post-pandemic cohorts. The results show that men’s license attainment decreased (OR = 0.439) after the pandemic while women’s attainment increased (OR = 8.399). Furthermore, newly licensed women are more likely to move to different employers than unlicensed women before and after the pandemic (SHR = 1.50 and 1.23 respectively), while newly licensed men are more likely to switch to part-time than unlicensed men after the pandemic (SHR = 3.75). These results imply that the purpose of later-life attainment of occupational licenses varies by gender and period yet contribute to longer work lives by taking on alternative retirement pathways.