Proquest is a reasonable place to start. However, I would also search in the following databases: Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier (Not the enhanced interface), and SocIndex-Full Text. I would start by using terms from your question such as retirements, "forced retirements", "cost cutting" savings, etc. You will need to try different combination of search terms. Make sure that you select "Tx All Text" on the right hand side rather than the default "Select a field-optional" If you have a phrase as a search term put the phrase in quotation marks such as "forced retirement" in the search box. This will tell the database to search for the exact phrase.

You can use the search limiters (often found on the left hand side of the search results screen to limit your results to peer reviewed (scholarly) articles.