PTRetired… and kept on working
More and more people stay active after becoming entitled to retire. Why? With 422 workers aged 40 and over, the research shows what sustains this career longevity. Explained in 10 screens.
Retirement is no longer the end of the line
People live longer, and there will be a shortage of workers. The thesis gives a name to the period when someone is already entitled to retire and stays active: career longevity. It has two parts: the extra time at work and the motives that keep the person active. Tap a motive:
The sample bar starts at the average age at which the 113 retirees began receiving their pension and extends by the average number of years they have worked since. General rule of Brazil's Constitutional Amendment 103/2019; OECD (2024) effective retirement ages. Source: section 2.8 and Table 103.
422 people aged 40 and over, all of them working
The online questionnaire reached formal employees, self-employed people, entrepreneurs and business owners from 16 Brazilian states and abroad, aged 40 to 83. The author created three new scales, including the career longevity scale, and adapted two others into Portuguese.
Each dot is one participant. Dots light up in the number of the chosen group; they do not mark the same people from one group to the next. Source: Tables 39 to 46.
What makes someone carry on? Place your bet
Drawing on 172 studies, the author arrived at five candidate promoting factors of career longevity. For each one, say whether you think it helps people keep working. The card turns over and shows what the data said.
The place of work, choice and adaptation
Three factors are directly linked to career longevity: work centrality (the largest), volition and adaptability. With health and sex, the model explains about half (51%) of the differences between people.
Tap a circle or an arrow. Thickness follows the standardized coefficient (β): the thicker, the stronger the link. Final model (10th round), estimated in SmartPLS with 419 people. Associations, not proof of cause. Source: Figure 20, Tables 95, 96 and 101.
Health matters most, and it changes the game
Perceived health entered the model as a control and turned out to carry the largest weight. It also changes the rules: the author split people who rate their own health above and below the median and compared the two groups.
Height proportional to the β coefficient. "Everyone": final model (Table 95). Groups: multigroup analysis with 181 people in better health and 241 in worse health (Table 100). The difference between the groups is significant for centrality and adaptability; for volition, it is not (p = 0.063).
Feeling employable is not enough
Believing one could keep or find work had no direct effect on longevity (β = 0.052, not significant). Employability depends heavily on volition (0.490), and people who already receive a pension feel less employable (−0.221). For the author, motivation, purpose and the wish to stay active matter more.
Source: Tables 94, 95 and 101 and section 4.9.5.
Women want to carry on; men have carried on for longer
Men and women look different depending on the yardstick. On the motives scale, women scored higher than men, even taking health and the other factors into account (β = −0.185 for men). In time already worked after retiring, men are ahead.
Height proportional to the value. Years after retiring apply only to the 113 retirees (46 men and 67 women), who on average retired earlier than the legal age. Reading the two measures together is our interpretation. Source: Tables 40, 95 and 103.
Four in five carry on by choice
Of the 422, 113 already receive a pension and keep working, on average for 5.6 years so far. Most do not intend to stop. Pick a question:
Each figure is one working retiree. "By choice" adds the 38 who changed jobs by their own decision and the 55 who changed nothing, as the author did. Source: Tables 39 and 40 and sections 4.9.4.1 and 4.9.4.3.
Six profiles of people who work after retiring
The author crosses two things: how long a person has worked since retiring and whether they plan to stop one day. Answer and see your profile (or that of someone you know).
Taller blocks: people who never intend to stop. The numbers along the edges are the totals of the 113 retirees in each time band and intention; the thesis does not report how many fall into each profile. The quiz is illustrative. Source: Figure 21, Tables 40 and 102.
Working longer, by choice and in good health
For the author, working later in life is not just an economic need: it is also about meaning, fulfilment and desire. Anyone who wants to retain and include older workers needs to look at these motives.
For companies
- Career programs designed for people in their 50s, 60s and beyond.
- Part-time work, phased retirement, project contracts and bridge employment.
- Customized careers that adjust to each stage of life.
Health at the center
- Perceived health had the largest weight; caring for health means caring for staying on.
- When health is worse, the meaning work has in one's life holds people more.
For public policy
- Active ageing, with autonomy and decent work at every age.
- Attention to those forced to stay in or leave the labor market: not everyone gets to choose.
For career guidance
- The longevity scale and the six profiles can serve as diagnostic tools in HR and career counseling.
- Develop adaptability and freedom of choice, which reinforce each other.
What this research does not say
- A wealthier, more educated sample. 72% in income classes A and B, 96% with a university degree and 71% from São Paulo. Results may differ in classes C, D and E. · according to the author
- People from different classes understand "changing careers" in different ways. So readiness for career transitions should be read with caution. · according to the author
- A snapshot, with self-assessment. Each person answered once about themselves; the results show associations, not cause and effect. · our note
- Time and motives measured separately. Years after retiring apply to 113 people; the model uses the motives scale, answered by everyone. · our note
Credits
DIAS, Emerson Weslei. Longevidade de carreira: fatores promotores da extensão da carreira dos trabalhadores mais velhos [Career longevity: factors that promote the extension of older workers' careers]. Doctoral thesis (Business Administration) — Mackenzie Presbyterian University, São Paulo, 2025. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Darcy Mitiko Mori Hanashiro.
Research funded by a CAPES scholarship (Brazil's federal agency for graduate education). Data analyzed with structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM, in SmartPLS 4) over ten rounds, with multigroup analysis. This version simplifies the work for a general audience; the construction of the scales, all the rounds and the full discussions are in the original text.