Receptivity to volunteering in the immediate postretirement period

Higher rates of volunteering might be expected of elders in the period immediately after retirement because they tend to be in relatively good health and have fewer competing obligations. Data from the Commonwealth Productive Aging Survey, a telephone survey of a representative national sample of 2,999 people 55 years of age and older confirmed findings of previous research that retirement is not associated with higher rates of volunteering. However in the first and second years following termination of employment, nonvolunteers show a heightened receptivity to volunteering; that is, they indicate more willingness to take on volunteer assignments and an ability to do so than do elders who are employed or who have been out of the workforce for longer periods. The findings suggest that volunteer coordinators should focus volunteer recruiting efforts on elders who are about to leave jobs or who have recently left jobs.