Markov work life table research in the United States

Prior to 1982, work life tables in the United States could be viewed as the labor force counterpart of life tables. Most work in this area emanated from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and was based on the assumptions that men entered and left the labor force only once in their lives and women only entered and left the labor force as a result of a change in their marital or parental status. The work life model for men especially was demographic in nature since departure from the labor force was akin to death in a life table in the sense that labor force reentry was not possible, just as reentry into a life table cannot occur after death. We now refer to this type of construct as the conventional model of work life. Tables produced by Fullerton and Byrne (1976), using data from 1970, illustrate this approach to work life expectancy (WLE).