Baby boomers hang on to long-term jobs, StatsCan reports

New study follows workers for more than 2 decades

Baby boomers are in it for the long haul, notes a report released today from Statistics Canada.

In its study entitled An Overview of the Working Lives of Older Baby Boomers, StatsCan followed workers at the leading edge of the baby boom generation from 1983 to 2010.

Now in their mid-60s, two-thirds of those workers were long-term job-holders, which StatsCan defined as those who worked for the same employer for at least 20 years, and did not experience any permanent or temporary layoffs during that time. Their annual and cumulative earnings were also considerably higher than their counterparts whose jobs did not last as long.

As well, baby boomers whose longest job lasted less than five years only accounted for 12 per cent of study subjects – while 25 per cent had their longest job last anywhere between six and 11 years. The high job turnover for that 25 per cent, or “mobile workers,” was likely due to involuntary scenarios, such as permanent and temporary layoffs, the report indicated.

Among the study subjects, about 75 per cent of men worked in the private sector, while women were most likely to hold positions in the public sector, in areas such as education, health care and social services.

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