Canada: Statistics Show a New Retirement

According to New Frontiers of Research on Retirement, a new book released by Statistics Canada, broad social changes are forcing Canadians to rethink their traditional ideas about retirement. Looking at the effect of the baby boom generation's pending retirement, the report centres on four main themes:

• Gender differences: Women are much more likely than men to see retirement as involving more than just getting a pension or stopping paid work.
• Joint retirement: The growing number of women with substantial pension benefits is having a major impact on decisions about retirement in Canadian families. For more and more couples, decision-making is becoming much more complex.
• Maintaining a standard of living in retirement: Amid growing uncertainty about their future financial security, an increasing number of people do not know when they will retire. Others have simply delayed their retirement.
• Flexibilty of retirement paths as some workers opt for self-employment: With a massive wave of retirement looming among baby boomers, the labour supply from older workers will grow in importance. Many will likely choose to become self-employed, making flexible retirement paths more prevalent.

Source: The Daily Statistics Canada (March 27, 2006)