How Early Retirement Might Be Killing Men

Can early retirement lead to an early death? That's one possibility of a new study by Maria Fitzpatrick of Cornell University and Timothy Moore of the University of Melbourne, reports Forbes . The researchers found a surge in the number of men dying at age 62, despite overall life expectancy in the U.S. being around 79. One explanation is that there has been a large loss in high-paying manufacturing jobs over the past four decades. Some 7 million jobs have been lost since 1979, when manufacturing employment peaked, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With that steep drop-off has been a massive loss of guaranteed pensions and healthcare, so workers forced into the much lower-paying hourly economy are getting poor medical care and saving less. Such individuals may also be engaging in unhealthy behaviors and encounter opioid addiction, alcoholism, traffic accidents, and lifestyle-related diseases such as lung cancer, the study suggests.