The study also showed, perhaps contrary to conventional wisdom, that the most physically demanding jobs were the most likely to keep workers healthy.Service sector employees were the least likely to suffer from chronic conditions that limited their functioning.

The results suggest that, while many blue-collar workers run a greater risk of injury on the job, such accidents may pose less of a risk to a worker's health than the sedentary lifestyle that white-collar employment facilitates.

But blue-collar workers may also simply be healthier because those who do acquire physical impediments are forced to quit, while older white-collar workers can stay on the job despite a number of health issues.

"The only way these workers can stay in the labor force is to have better health," Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois Chicago, told HealthDay News.

One of the chief benefits of staying on the job is the regular social contact a workplace provides people in their later years. And for workers with lower incomes, many jobs provide more comprehensive health insurance than they might receive through Medicare.

Read: 9 industries and how they match up with retirement plans

"Remaining in the labor force is healthier for you. It's healthier because working keeps you physically and mentally engaged," Olshanksky said.

For that reason, he argues, workers shouldn't be forced to retire at a certain age. Doing so might actually deprive them of the benefits that retirement was originally designed to provide.