Holding nontraditional jobs after age 62 can build retirement security, study finds

Workers who are underprepared financially for retirement and hold jobs without health or retirement benefits after age 62 are able to close much of the gap in their retirement security by the time they're 67 or 68, according to a study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

The study, which looks at the use of nontraditional work as a means to extend one’s career, also found no evidence that those who approach retirement relatively underprepared are more likely to switch from traditional to nontraditional work late in their careers.

“The novel finding is that even jobs that do not offer health and retirement benefits can help substantially in closing the retirement security gap,” the study concluded. “Workers who do not feel capable of maintaining their career job, or who desire more flexibility and autonomy, can take heart that even a nontraditional job can bring them closer to their retirement goals.”

Most definitions of nontraditional jobs — which often are described as gig economy jobs, on-call work, temporary positions, part-time jobs, or self-employment — focus on the worker’s relationship to the employer, the Center for Retirement Research noted.

Instead, the Center said, it defined nontraditional jobs simply as those with neither employer-provided health insurance nor a retirement savings plan.

[More: Retirees embrace the gig economy]