Key takeaways

  • In the labor market, physical labor occupations retire earliest while professional and executive careers retire latest. For example, construction workers, miners, and agricultural workers typically leave the workforce in their early-to-mid 60s. Relatedly, physicians, lawyers, and senior managers commonly work into their late 60s and beyond, all according to Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey data.
  • Public safety workers retire among the earliest of any occupational group, typically in their mid-50s. While many law enforcement officers and firefighters participate in defined-benefit pensions with 20-year service rules, making them eligible to start drawing benefits decades before the Social Security full retirement age of 67, most choose to work a bit longer to maximize their pension payouts.
  • Pension structure is as powerful a predictor of retirement timing as physical demand. Workers with defined-benefit pensions tied to years of service retire earlier than those banking on a 401(k) balance. 
  • State and local government workers have access to defined-benefit pension plans at a rate of 86 percent, compared to 14 percent for private sector workers. That structural gap, confirmed by the Congressional Research Service citing BLS National Compensation Survey data from March 2025, drives more of the retirement age divide than most people realize.
  • The gap between the earliest and latest retiring occupations spans roughly 15 years. Law enforcement and firefighters typically retire in their mid-50s compared to late 60s or 70s for lawyers and judges. 

According to Gallup’s most recent Economy and Personal Finance survey, the self-reported average retirement age in the US is 62. Other estimates vary depending on methodology. For instance, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College typically puts the average retirement age closer to 64–65 for men and 62–63 for women.

Behind it sits a distribution that spans more than a decade, and where someone lands on that range has a lot more to do with what they did for a living than most people expect.

Why occupation shapes retirement age

Three things drive most of the variation and they often overlap.

Physical demands and health limitations

The first is physical attrition. Some workers work as long as their bodies’ endurance allows, especially those in construction, mining, agriculture, manufacturing, and freight sectors. Between 26% and 30% of workers in manual-labor-reliant industries (including construction, mining, and agricultural workers) face work-limiting health conditions compared to 12.4% of working-age individuals across all fields, according to the National Institutes of Health. 

Pension structure and retirement incentives

The second is pension structure. This one surprises people. An employer’s retirement benefit design can determine when someone leaves, regardless of what the body allows. Public sector workers in law enforcement, firefighting, military service, and some teaching roles have access to defined-benefit pensions that vest on years of service, not age. Public sector workers in law enforcement and firefighting often have access to pensions that vest after 20 or 25 years of service. 

A police officer who joins at 22 hits technical eligibility at 42, but actual workforce exit usually lands in the mid-50s. This gap exists because pension formulas reward additional years of service up to a specific cap. Once an officer hits that peak payout cap in their mid-50s, continuing to work effectively means turning down a guaranteed check, making further employment financially illogical.

Data on how many defined-benefit pension recipients cap out and enter the private sector are not centrally tracked. However, retirement trends show that 74% of firefighters and 82% of police retirees continue working or re-enter the workforce, typically taking private-sector roles in security, corporate investigation, or consulting.

The value of experience later in a career

The third is cognitive replaceability. In professions like medicine, law, academia, and executive leadership, workers are often valued more as they age because their years of experience translate directly into higher expertise and increased compensation. Unlike professions with steep physical demands or structured pension incentives that encourage early retirement, these individuals remain highly compensated and active in their fields much longer.

Graphic by Kate Farley

Occupations with the earliest exits

Law enforcement officers and firefighters exit the workforce earlier than almost anyone, but this is driven more by structural incentives than physical burnout. In many state and local public safety pension systems, retirement eligibility hinges on a combination of service years and a minimum age requirement, typically 20 to 25 years of service and a minimum age of 50 or 55. For example, an officer who joined the force at age 25 under a “25-and-out” plan with a minimum age requirement of 50 could retire at 50 with a guaranteed monthly income for life. This structured off-ramp explains why BLS occupational data shows significantly younger median ages in protective service occupations than in most professional fields; the pension system is designed to do exactly this work.

Construction and extraction workers leave early as well, but often not entirely by choice. Injury rates rank among the highest of any occupational category in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Working through the mid-to-late 60s in roofing, heavy construction, or mining is, for many, simply not physically possible.

Agricultural workers, especially in crop production and animal husbandry, also exit early. The work is typically seasonal, physically demanding, and self-employed with no employer retirement benefits. When physical demands become unsustainable and there’s no pension waiting, the exit comes sooner than the national average (sometimes before Medicare even kicks in at 65).

Occupations with the latest exits

Physicians and surgeons represent one of the clearest examples of late-career longevity in the American workforce. The grueling training pipeline requires anywhere from 10 to 14 years from undergraduate entry to independent practice, depending on the specialty. Because of this lengthy runway, peak earnings don’t arrive until a doctor’s late 30s or early 40s. This deferred timeline, combined with clinical expertise that grows more valuable with experience, creates powerful financial and professional incentives to keep practicing well into the 60s and 70s. This reality is reflected in BLS data, which confirms that healthcare practitioner occupations have median ages significantly higher than the overall workforce median of 42.1 (such as physicians and surgeons at 46.7 and registered nurses at 43.5).

Chief executives and senior managers show the highest median ages of any category. While median ages can be skewed by the influx of younger workers entering a field, labor force participation data provides a clearer picture of who stays in the workforce longest. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, management and professional occupations consistently maintain some of the highest continued participation rates for workers over the age of 65. This trend highlights a broader pattern where experienced professionals in specialized roles often choose to extend their careers well past traditional retirement milestones.

Lawyers and judges continue working into later stages of life. Senior partners and judges hit peak influence and compensation in their 50s and 60s. There’s no structural push toward the exit, so most don’t take it until they’re ready.

Postsecondary teachers have one of the most distinctive late-career profiles of any occupation. Tenure is the reason. It provides a kind of employment security that simply doesn’t exist in most fields. Many academics remain active in research and teaching well into their 70s. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook notes that postsecondary teaching has among the highest proportions of workers aged 65 and over of any occupation in the country.

Go Further: The BLS publishes detailed data on the age composition of the employed workforce by occupation in Current Population Survey Table 11b, updated annually. The 2025 annual averages are at bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11b.htm. Any worker can look up their specific occupation and see how it compares.

The pension structure factor

Defined-benefit pensions are one of the strongest predictors of early retirement timing across all occupational categories.

A big incentive structure lies within those workers who have a guaranteed monthly income tied to years of service. According to the Congressional Research Service, citing BLS National Compensation Survey data from March 2025, state and local government workers had access to defined-benefit pension plans at a rate of 86 percent. Private sector workers: 14 percent.

When a pension vests at 25 years of service, the calculation changes completely. That structural difference, not individual savings habits, discipline, or personal choices, is what drives a significant share of the 15-year gap between the earliest and latest retiring occupations in this country.

How a financial advisor can help

Sometimes, workers in physically demanding jobs face an unexpected retirement or those in professional fields with longer expected careers, usually face completely different planning problems. A qualified financial advisor or tax professional with experience in retirement income planning can model Social Security benefit scenarios across different claiming ages. They can figure out whether a defined-benefit pension changes the optimal claiming strategy, plus help workers think through the gap between workforce exit and Medicare eligibility at 65.

FAQs

Do military personnel retire earlier than civilians? 

Active-duty service members can collect an immediate pension after 20 years of qualifying service, regardless of age. Someone who enlisted at 18 can technically exit with a pension at 38. While this is one of the most structured early pension frameworks in the country, it rarely signifies a permanent retirement from the workforce. Instead, receiving a guaranteed pension at age 38 serves as a powerful financial cushion, allowing individuals to exit the military and transition into a second, civilian career decades before traditional retirement age.

Under the Blended Retirement System introduced in 2018, newer service members participate in a combination of defined-benefit and defined-contribution elements, but the 20-year threshold for immediate pension eligibility remains intact, according to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Does retiring early from a physically demanding job affect Social Security benefits? 

Yes, in two ways. First, leaving early reduces the years feeding into the Social Security benefit calculation. Benefits are based on the 35 highest earning years, so early exit creates zero years that pull the average down. Second, claiming at 62 produces a permanent 30 percent reduction in monthly benefits for workers with a full retirement age of 67, according to the SSA. Workers who stop before 62 can delay claiming, but they need income or savings to bridge that gap.

Are there occupations where workers commonly continue past age 70? 

Yes. Farming and agricultural business owners frequently keep working past 70 as self-employed operators with no defined retirement date. Academic researchers with tenure, independent attorneys, and solo-practice physicians also show high rates of continued work into the 70s. The BLS Current Population Survey documents a labor force participation rate of 18.5 percent for Americans aged 65 and older as of 2025. Within that group, the distribution skews heavily toward self-employed and professional workers who can scale their workload rather than face a binary retirement decision. They don’t retire. They just work less.

Glossary

  • Current Population Survey (CPS). A monthly household survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics that tracks employment, occupation, age, and earnings. It’s the primary source for occupation-level age distribution data in the country.
  • Defined-benefit pension. A retirement plan in which an employer guarantees a specific monthly payment at retirement, typically calculated on years of service and salary history. Workers with access to these plans tend to retire earlier than those without them because the income is guaranteed regardless of account balance.
  • Defined-contribution plan. A retirement savings plan, like a 401(k), where the employer and employee make contributions but the final benefit depends on investment performance. Most private sector workers rely on this model.
  • Labor force participation rate. The percentage of the civilian noninstitutional population that’s either employed or actively seeking work, as measured by the BLS. Rates decline significantly after 55 and drop sharply after 65.
  • Median worker age. The midpoint of the age distribution of employed workers in a given occupation. Used here as a proxy for career longevity patterns, drawn from BLS CPS Table 11b.
  • Physical attrition. The gradual accumulation of wear, injury, and health limitations from physically demanding work over a career. One of the primary drivers of earlier-than-planned workforce exit in construction, mining, and agriculture.

This scan result is without scanning the sources consulted and the disclaimer 

Sources