An analysis of the incidence of mandatory retirement and its economic rationale suggests that the question is becoming a nonissue, given the introduction of pension rules allowing more flexible early retirement and the resulting small, declining numbers of workers now affected by age ceilings. (Author/AG)

Countries with mature social security systems have declining rates of labor force participation of the aged. The experience of nine countries (United States, Canada, Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom) over the last two decades provided the statistical data presented and analyzed in the…

Older workers 55 and over have the largest proportion of persons discouraged for job market reasons of any age group. There is also an indication that more older people are taking themselves out of the labor market completely for other than personal reasons--apparently because of labor market conditions. (Author/AJ)