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Rural Nonfarm Households: Leaving the Farm and the Retirement of Older Men, 1860–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Jon R. Moen
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Extract

The fall in the labor force participation rate of older men in the United States has been dramatic. In 1860 approximately 76% of men 65 and older were in the labor force. Today less than 20% work. Much of the decline has been explained in terms of a shift from agricultural occupations to manufacturing or industrial occupations, where participation historically has been lower at older ages. Participation rates, however, appear to have been constant in both farm and urban households through 1930, thus challenging the thesis that industrialization and urbanization were causes of the fall in the participation rate of older men.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Spring 1994 , pp. 55 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1994 

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