The working life expectancy of Canadians has been increasing for more than 10 years. This new indicator was identified by Statistics Canada using the data gathered in its Labour Force Survey, via a method similar to calculating a population’s life expectancy.
The retirement behaviour of Canadians was closely analyzed, and the results are unequivocal: the retirement age has continually gone up since the mid-1990s. And in 2008, Canadians retired 3.5 years later on average than their counterparts a decade earlier.
In 2008, 50-year-old workers still had some 15 years of work in front of them, compared to 12.5 years of extra work in 19995.
Increased employment rate for older workers
While the late 1980s and early 1990s were marked by a very net trend towards early retirement, mainly due to a large deficit in the public sector and waves of layoffs in the private sector, the situation today is fundamentally different.
After an all-time low of 22% in 1996, the employment rate of Canadians aged 55 and over has continually increased to reach an unprecedented 34% in 2010. This is a massive rate of employment, higher even than the 30.2% in 1976 for this category of the population, when most 50-year-olds were still working, for economic reasons.
Canadians not enjoying retirement any less
While people are retiring later, the retirement period has remained stable. This paradox is explained by the increase in lifespan—from 77 to 78.5 for men and from 81 to 83.1 for women from 1992 to 2008.
Between 1977 and 1994, the anticipated duration of retirement, the average number of years during which Canadians can expect to enjoy their gold years, increased from 11.2 to 15.4 years for men. This number has stayed relatively stable, with an expected duration of around 15 years for men in 2008. In women, it increased from 16.4 to 20.6 years between 1977 and 1996, with a somewhat reduced duration of 19 years in 2008.
After 50, half the remaining life expectancy will take place in retirement
In 2008, men could expect to enjoy 48% of their remaining life expectancy in retirement, vs. 45% in the mid-1970s; women could count on a proportion that has been stable for three decades, representing 55% of their remaining life expectancy.