Des fins de carrière toujours marquées par l'inactivité pour les femmes

This article hopes to contribute to two debates : the impact of senior workers' employment status on their future pension rights ; and the pension gaps between men and women, which are still considerable in the cohorts retiring now. We know that unintended career breaks after age 50 have a major impact on pension rights and, in return, on individuals' decisions about when to retire, but until now we had little data on the characteristics of the occupational trajectories of men and women after 50. This article seeks to address that gap by painting a full picture of careers after age 50, regardless of employment status at and after 50. It also compares accrual of pension rights and retirement age by trajectory and gender. To do so, this article uses data from the all-scheme contributor samples and the all-scheme retiree samples collected by DREES, and examines the cohorts born in 1934, 1938 and 1942 - for which we have the whole career after age 50 until retirement - and occasionally, the 1946 and 1950 cohorts. In these cohorts, employment rates are found to decrease steadily with age, with unemployment, paid pre-retirement and "other economically inactive" (excluding the dispensation from seeking work for seniors, paid pre-retirement and sickness or disability) becoming increasingly prevalent. Although the gaps between men and woman narrowed between the cohorts born in 1934 and 1942, a higher percentage of women than men from those cohorts have been "other economically inactive" after age 50, even when they were in employment at 50. Conversely, a higher percentage men from the cohorts born in 1934, 1938 and 1942 have been in paid pre-retirement. Consequently, women accumulate fewer pension rights after age 50 and generally retire later, even when they had an equivalent occupational status to their male counterparts at 50. Lastly, because they have shorter periods of economic, women's retirement seem more sensitive to their late career trajectories.