Retirement is often treated as an ending point in workforce planning. An employee reaches a certain stage, leaves the organization, and succession planning begins. Canadian labour data is making that picture less useful. Statistics Canada reports that the labour force participation rate for Canadians aged 65 and older reached 15.2% in 2025, the highest level recorded since the Labour Force Survey began tracking the group in 1976. Nearly 1.2 million seniors were employed or looking for work. The average retirement age also reached a record 65.4 years. Those numbers do not mean retirement is disappearing. In 2025, 198,000 people aged 65 and older reported leaving a job during the previous year and no longer being in the labour force, and 169,000 of them had retired. The more useful conclusion for employers is that the path out of work is becoming less uniform. Some employees are staying because they want to. Others may need the income. Some are moving to part time work. Some are self employed. Some are retiring later from private sector jobs than employees in the public sector.
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