Cohort Working Life Tables for Older Canadians

We construct cohort working life tables for Canadian men and women aged 50 and older and, for comparison, corresponding period tables. The tables are derived using annual single-age time series of participation rates for 1976-2006 from the master files of the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey. The cohort calculations are based on stochastic projections of mortality coupled with alternative assumptions about future participation rates. Separate tables are provided for the years 1976, 1991, and 2006, thus spanning a period of substantial gains in life expectancy and strong upward trends in female participation. Life expectancies based on the cohort tables are greater than those based on the period tables, for both men and women, and that is reflected in increased retirement expectancies. For example, a male aged 50 in 1976 could have expected to live three years longer and to have almost four more years in retirement, based on the male cohort table under medium assumptions, as compared with the corresponding period table.