Employment Biographies of the German Baby Boomer Generation

Given the ageing and shrinking labor force, the baby boom cohorts are of increasing importance to the German labor market. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the work trajectories of two illustrative baby boom cohorts, born in 1959 and 1965. We make use of the new data source BASiD. Using optimal matching methods, we consider clusters to identify typical work trajectories of the two birth cohorts. The clusters are characterized by different degrees of participation in employment. Our results show that work trajectories characterized mainly by full-time employment are declining in relevance and that more diversified work-life concepts are gaining importance.