Extended working lives are now becoming the norm in many Western countries. However, it is not always easy to do so. A substantial number of older adults are pushed out of the labor force at the end of their work careers. In this study, we explore whether older workers are forced to leave their careers through retirement routes or become unemployed or disabled prior to retirement. We take a cross-national perspective, using data from 14 European countries, to examine whether the national labor market context impacts on how individuals leave their careers, especially focusing on the strictness of employment protection legislation. We use a country fixed effects approach to control for country-level heterogeneity. Our results show that there is wide variation in the rates of forced exit (between 20 and 50%). We have found that weak employment protection legislation results in an increased likelihood of forced exit through unemployment or disability, whereas in countries with strict employment protection, older workers are particularly likely to be forced out through retirement arrangements (b=0.86, p<0,01). This latter case could be seen as a form of hidden unemployment as people are forced to leave the labor market through retirement, while they might have been willing and able to extend their working lives up until higher ages. The results of this study imply that the choice to extend or leave work in later life is not always an individual one, but is also determined by country-level factors.
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