Emilie Jackson Summarizes the Pandemic's Impact on the Labor Market Behavior of Older Workers

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp rise in unemployment for workers of all ages. For older workers, it also increased the retirement rate and was associated with a decline in the number of new disability insurance filings. Unexpectedly early retirement on account of the pandemic can have long-lasting effects on retirees' level of Social Security benefits. In a new research paper (29083), NBER researchers Gopi Shah Goda of Stanford University (on leave at the Council of Economic Advisers) and Emilie Jackson, a post-doctoral scholar, along with Lauren Nichols of the Colorado School of Public Health and Sarah See Stith of the University of New Mexico, document the pandemic's impact on the labor market behavior of older workers. They present new information from the Current Population Survey and several other sources. Jackson summarizes their findings in the video above, and notes that some of short-term labor market changes may have longer-term consequences.  An archive of NBER videos on pandemic-related research may be found here.