Occupational licensing in later life: changing older workers' work and retirement pathways before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Occupational licensing is the fastest-growing labor market institution, and a significant portion of newly licensed individuals are older workers. This study introduces occupational licensing as an influential factor of later-life work and retirement by investigating the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of older workers newly attaining licenses and the choices of work adjustments after attaining licenses, as well as measuring the changes in these trends before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: I use the sample of workers aged between 50 and 60 from the IPUMS-CPS 2017-2019 (n = 3,831) and 2023-2025 (n = 2,674). I use propensity score matching to investigate the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of older workers newly attaining licenses, multinomial logistic regression with two-stage residual inclusion to examine the choice of work adjustments after newly attaining licenses, and linear regression to predict the reasons for newly attaining licenses. RESULTS: Older workers with more resources, from historically underrepresented groups, and self-employed are more likely to newly attain licenses, yet there is no statistical difference in license attainment before and after the pandemic. Attaining licenses increases the likelihood of moving to different employers before and after the pandemic, yet the reason for moving cannot be determined: career development or bridge employment. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Prolonging the labor force participation of older workers is a growing interest. Subsidizing older workers' license attainment will contribute to prolonging their labor force participation by providing financial, psychological, and social benefits throughout their remaining work life-course.