Heterogeneity in labor supply and exits among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic

Gopi Shah Goda, Emilie Jackson, Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Rosemary Rhodes and Sarah S. Stith

Chapter Chapter 13 in Handbook on Inequality and COVID-19, 2025, pp 198-220 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many potential changes to older adult employment due to their greater COVID vulnerability and greater access to retirement and disability. This chapter uses Current Population Survey data from January 2015 through March 2022 to study the impacts of the first two years of the pandemic on older adult labor supply. We focus on differences across gender, race/ethnicity, and education, building on work that found differential responses during the first year of the pandemic, similar to prior periods of economic downturn. Overall, labor market outcomes improved and disparities decreased during the second year of the pandemic relative to the first. Employment disparities decreased more than differences in labor force non-participation. For example, higher unemployment in year 1 among females and Hispanics aged 50-61 disappeared by year 2 relative to males and non-Hispanics, respectively. However, new disparities in retirement as a reason for non-labor force participation appeared for the less educated relative to the more educated and for Blacks and other races relative to Whites for the 62-70 age cohort. Our results shed light on the differential experiences of older Americans during the pandemic and highlight the limitations of reporting only aggregate effects.

Keywords: COVID-19; Labor market disparities; Employment; Retirement; Disability; Older workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035302758
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