Worklife Expectancy
Worklife expectancy is the number of additional years a person of a given age, sex, education, and labor force status is expected to be economically active. Published tables are used to bound future earnings projections.
When it is used
Worklife expectancy is used in virtually every forensic economic analysis of lost earnings or earning capacity, and in wrongful death matters to project the decedent's expected work years.
Step-by-step
- Identify the claimant's current age, sex, education, and labor force status
- Select an appropriate published worklife table (e.g., Skoog-Ciecka-Krueger)
- Apply the active-to-inactive transition probabilities to the projection horizon
- Where injury severity is documented, consider published adjustments for reduced worklife
Data sources
- Skoog-Ciecka-Krueger worklife tables
- BLS Current Population Survey
- Markov-process worklife literature
- Severity-specific worklife literature (spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), etc.)
Limitations
Worklife tables reflect average transitions across the population and may not capture case-specific factors such as unusual health status, industry-specific retirement patterns, or late-career skill obsolescence.
Admissibility
The Skoog-Ciecka-Krueger tables and predecessors are widely accepted in forensic economics (Skoog et al., 2011).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Markov worklife model?
A Markov model projects transitions between active and inactive labor force states using probabilities derived from population data, yielding expected active and inactive years rather than a single retirement age.
Are worklife tables specific to education?
Yes. Skoog-Ciecka-Krueger tables are stratified by education, sex, age, and labor force status, reflecting observed differences in worklife patterns.
References
- Skoog, G. R., Ciecka, J. E., & Krueger, K. V. (2011). The Markov process model of labor force activity: Extended tables of central tendency, shape, percentile points, and bootstrap standard errors. Journal of Forensic Economics, 22(2), 165-229. doi.orgPeer-Reviewed
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Current Population Survey (CPS). U.S. Department of Labor. bls.govGovernment
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