Despite its profound economic impact, the COVID-19 pandemic played only a "modest" role in retirement timing, at least during 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau has found.
When asked how the pandemic affected their retirement timing, 2.9% of people ages 55 to 70 who were employed in January 2020 said they retired early or planned to retire early due to COVID. Another 2.3% said they delayed retirement or planned to delay retirement.
"Retirement trends were remarkably stable during a period of upheaval in the labor market overall," said the Sept. 19 analysis of retirement timing prepared by Daniel Thompson, a survey statistician in the Census Bureau's Program Participation and Income Transfers Branch.
The data are part of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation.
Mr. Thompson's report noted that unemployment increased from 3.5% in February 2020 to a peak of 14.7% in April 2020.
The greatest percentage of those retiring early or planning to retire early was the 62 to 65 age group with 4.6%. The lowest percentage was the 55 to 61 group at 2.2%. The early retirement rate for the 66 to 70 group was 3.5%.
Health played a prominent role in early retirement. Among five self-reported health categories, 5.6% of people who described their health as poor said they had retired early or planned to do so. Among those in excellent health, the early retirement rate was 1.9%.
