The majority of Canadians who retired in the past ten years would have preferred to remain on the job if their circumstances had changed. Latest statistics, meanwhile, confirm a growing trend back to the workforce by many in their 50s and 60s.

Favourable working conditions may be the decisive factor in determining whether many retired Canadians remain on the job or return to paid employment, an analyst with Statistics Canada suggests.

A report published by StatsCan shows that six out of ten retirees surveyed would have preferred to continue working-whether they left their jobs voluntarily or involuntarily-if their employment circumstances were different. At the same time, figures show employment of Canadians over age 55 has steadily increased over the past seven years, with signs that the trend is continuing.

"A lot of people who were leaving were 57 or 58," says Grant Schellenberg, senior analyst with StatsCan's demography division. "They were in good health, they had pensions and had received early retirement incentives. They were really being coaxed out of their jobs at a relatively young age."

Though many felt they still had much to contribute in their jobs, restructuring in both private and public sectors during the 1990s resulted in use of retirement as "a mechanism for workforce adjustment," Schellenberg says. "You had these people being sort of nudged out in their mid-to-late-50s."

In its 2002 General Social Survey, Statistics Canada cited a number of factors that would have encouraged retirees to remain on the job during that period. Among them were more flexible working hours, better salary, improved health, reduced workloads or fewer weeks on the job each year without an impact on pension benefits. Twenty-eight percent of recent retirees said they would have continued working if they had been able to work part-time. Some said they would have stayed if mandatory retirement policies had not existed in their workplace. 4,500 people aged 50 and older in all ten provinces who retired between 1992 and 2000 were surveyed. Responses were similar for both men and women.

The results have implications for the workplace." the survey report concluded. "With the imminent retirement of baby boomers, some analysts have stressed the importance of strategies to encourage or enable older workers to defer retirement and remain on the job. Labour supply and the need to retain skilled employees are now more on the minds of employers than downsizing and restructuring, Schellenberg says. The result has been that the participation rate in the labour force by people in their mid-50s and older has steadily increased over the past seven years, he points out. Many who retired in their mid-50s are now having second thoughts, he adds. StatsCan figures show the labour force participation rate for men between 55 and 59 grew by five percentage points to 75.6 percent during that period. For men 60 to 64, the participation rate rose by ten points to 53 percent over the past ten years, with a three-point increase between 2002 and 2004. And for men between 65 and 69, the rate went from a low of 16.0 percent in 2000 to 21.8 percent in 2004, a gain of almost six points in just four years.

"This is not inconsequential," Schellenberg says. "Non-financial reasons for returning to the workforce-wanting to have something valuable to do and the challenge of employment-those things are actually quite prevalent. People work for a lot more reasons than just a paycheque."

While many people retire due to the pressures and stress of their jobs, statistical surveys also demonstrate that many would have preferred to have stayed on if the work environment was favorable, he says. A new report due for publication by StatsCan in July will attempt to answer some of the questions involving the impact of "job strain" or "pressure-cooker situations" as factors in how employees decide whether to retire or to remain on the job.

"We found there was a fairly strong co-relation between high levels of job strain and subsequent retirement," Schellenberg says. "What it shows is that the work environment has a big impact on retirement decisions. If we could address the issues of job quality and positive work environments, to what extent would that encourage or enable people to stay on the job longer?"