Staffing agency: A bridge to working during retirement

The ageing population has initiated a debate about a prolonged working life. There is an interest in finding the pre-retirement predictors of bridge employment and retirement decisions, but the understanding of the experiences of bridge employees is still limited.

The aim was to describe the characteristics of the pensioners working for a staffing agency, their motivational aspects, work patterns and types of services they provided.

This article analyses the results from a Swedish staffing agency's yearly co-worker questionnaire from December 2017. The response rate was 44% (N = 1741). The design is descriptive, with correlation analyses and construction of typical cases.

Most study participants were aged 65-74 years. Sixty-five percent were men, 66% were cohabitating/married, dominating education level was secondary school or higher education (79%). Important incentives for working were the social context and to gain extra income. A majority of the respondents also stated that their work increased their overall well-being. Seventy-eight percent worked 25 hours per month or less, 37% wanted to work more, 3% wanted to work less. Private services dominated with 61%; most common were gardening (43%), trades (33%) and cleaning (31%).

More men than women chose this form of work. While single women need to work out of economic necessity, men, to a larger extent, work for the social context and well-being. The highest work frequency in 2017 (14%) in the population was found for those who retired in 2015, i.e. two years after their retirement year. A majority indicated that the work they were doing was different from earlier in their working life.