An ageing population creates challenges for society, organizations and individuals. People live longer and are healthier, and many adults of retirement age are still able to continue to work. Some of them want to continue and to prolong their working lives; others are not so keen on the idea. An extended working life is clearly an issue of increasing interest in society. Politicians argue for changes in the retirement system and suggest a raising of the retirement age. This paper is a first step towards a mapping of previous research about extended working lives and later careers as consequences of demographic changes. This study explores the character of issues and themes visible in recent research regarding older adults’ career opportunities, and such issues and themes are critically analysed according to the following research questions: In whose interests are the identified issues and themes highlighted? What possible gaps and challenges are identified for future research?

Comprehensive databases, including peer-reviewed scientific articles, were used to search relevant research literature. The selection followed several steps. A brief review of the context and themes of extended working life in the literature was first explored. Thereafter, keywords were tested, revised, and finally selected for the final search procedure, which focused on scholarly, peer-reviewed articles published in the past ten years. Titles and abstracts were examined according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. This procedure resulted in a final selection of relevant articles that were included in the material for analysis. The analysis procedure resulted in several synthesised themes. These themes are critically analysed, and challenges for future research are discussed.