Work Experience and Earnings of the Aged in 1962: Findings of the 1963 Survey of the Aged

,1LTHOT-GH 3 out of every 4 persons aged 65 or over did not work in 1962, earnings were the largest single source of income in that year for aged persons and their spouses-32 percent of their total income-according to the findings of the 1963 Survey of the Aged. The next most important source of the money income of nonmarried persons aged 65 or over and married couples with one or both members aged 65 or over was old-age, survivors and disability insurance (OASDI) benefits~30 percent. Among the aged who continued to work earnings were, of course, much more important. For the 2.3 million persons aged 65 and over who worked at jobs during 19@2 that were usually full time, earnings alone made up about two-thirds of their income.1 Since World Var II there has been a steady trend toward more retirement among aged men. Nevertheless, aged workers constituted a slightly higher proportion of all workers in 1962 than they did in 1950 (table 1). This apparent contradiction is explnined by the increasing proportion of the population who are aged and by the growth in the proportion of aged women who work. About a fourth of all persons aged 65 and ovel were employed at some time in 1962, and more than one-fifth of all aged men usually had fulltime jobs.’ The men with any work earned an