Introduction Themed Section: What do Older Workers Want?

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Loretto ◽  
Sarah Vickerstaff ◽  
Phil White
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
European Policy ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
Labour Market Participation ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Employment Decline

Across the industrialised nations, the labour market participation of older workers (i.e. those aged 50 and over) continues to attract considerable attention, as the numbers in employment decline and those who are inactive or retired increase (for a 21-country review see OECD, 2006). Against a background of concern over the economic and social implications of low employment rates among the over-50s, much public policy has come to focus on extending the average working life by encouraging people to work for longer and to delay retirement (see, for example, House of Lords, 2003; and on European policy, von Nordeim, 2004).

scholarly journals To leave or not to leave: retirement intentions and retirement behaviour

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
PER ERIK SOLEM ◽  
ASTRI SYSE ◽  
TRUDE FURUNES ◽  
REIDAR J. MYKLETUN ◽  
ANNET DE LANGE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Labour Market Participation ◽  
Low Education ◽  
White Collar Workers ◽  
Work Continuation ◽  
Work Up ◽  
Retirement Intentions

ABSTRACTResearch on the correspondence between retirement intentions and subsequent behaviour is scarce. We aimed to explore possible associations between retirement intentions and behaviour, using five-year high-quality quantitative panel data on Norwegian senior workers. Retirement intentions operate at different levels of firmness: (a) considerations; (b) preferences; and (c) decisions. Compared to work continuation considerations, a targeted age for retirement improved predictive power whether the target was preferred or decided, and particularly so if the target (i.e. the preferred or decided age of retirement), corresponded with a normative retirement age. Because more workers are able to state a preferred age of retiring than a decision about when to retire, preferences may be better proxies for retirement behaviour than decisions, when the issue is planning for policies. The correspondence between intentions and behaviour varies primarily by health, education and type of work. Older workers with poor health, and workers with low education, often retire earlier than they prefer. Blue-collar workers often retire earlier than they had decided. These findings illustrate the possible effect of labour market resources, not only for senior workers' labour market participation, but also for their opportunities to work up to the age they prefer or had decided. Even for white-collar workers and those in good health, constraints seem to apply when they wish to retire late.

Jobs calculator – a tool for short-term forecasting of changes in the labour market

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
Maria Bieć ◽  
Ewa Gałecka-Burdziak ◽  
Paweł Kaczorowski ◽  
Robert Pater
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Unemployment Rate ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Labour Force Survey ◽  
Labour Market Participation ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Short Term Forecasting ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of the article is to present a modified and extended version of a jobs calculator – a tool used to perform simulations of the relationship between the unemployment and employment rates while adopting different assumptions regarding the potential trends in Poles’ professional activity and in shaping the size of Poland’s population. The user of the calculator sets the value of the target unemployment rate, and the tool calculates the number of jobs whose creation and filling would be necessary to obtain the desired level of the unemployment rate. The current version of the jobs calculator application has been enhanced compared to the original one in such a way that it allows modifying parameters characterizing the labour market (the labour market participation rate and the rate of the population growth) and creating forecasts within a defined time span. The calculator utilises data from the Labour Force Survey. The paper presents labour market forecasts until 2022 as well as the results of a simulation performed on the data from Labour Force Survey for the 3rd quarter of 2018.

De-standardisation and differentiation of retirement trajectories in the context of extended working lives in the Netherlands

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 890-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aart-Jan Riekhoff
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Register Data ◽  
Market Participation ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Market Withdrawal ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Labour Market Participation

During recent decades, labour market participation among older workers in the Netherlands has increased significantly. Postponing workers’ labour market withdrawal potentially makes their retirement patterns more uncertain and less predictable. This article uses Dutch register data to analyse de-standardisation and differentiation of retirement trajectories of men and women born between 1940 and 1946 for the age bracket of 59–65 ( N = 12,843). The results indicate that retirement trajectories of men have become more homogeneous, whereas those of women somewhat more heterogeneous. Simultaneously, retirement patterns of both men and women became more complex from one birth year to another.

scholarly journals Strong Labour Market Inequality of Opportunities at the Workplace for Supporting a Long and Healthy Work-Life: The SeniorWorkingLife Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (18) ◽  
pp. 3264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars L. Andersen ◽  
Per H. Jensen ◽  
Annette Meng ◽  
Emil Sundstrup
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Work Ability ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Access To Treatment ◽  
State Pension

Most European countries are gradually increasing the state pension age, but this may run counter to the capabilities and wishes of older workers. The objective of this study is to identify opportunities in the workplace for supporting a prolonged working life in different groups in the labour market. A representative sample of 11,200 employed workers ≥ 50 years responded to 15 questions in random order about opportunities at their workplace for supporting a prolonged working life. Respondents were stratified based on the Danish version of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Using frequency and logistic regression procedures combined with model-assisted weights based on national registers, results showed that the most common opportunities at the workplace were possibilities for more vacation, reduction of working hours, flexible working hours, access to treatment, further education and physical exercise. However, ISCO groups 5–9 (mainly physical work and shorter education) had in general poorer access to these opportunities than ISCO groups 1–4 (mainly seated work and longer education). Women had poorer access than men, and workers with reduced work ability had poorer access than those with full work ability. Thus, in contrast with actual needs, opportunities at the workplace were lower in occupations characterized by physical work and shorter education, among women and among workers with reduced work ability. This inequality poses a threat to prolonging working life in vulnerable groups in the labour market.

scholarly journals The Netherworld between Work and Retirement

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McGann ◽  
Helen Kimberley ◽  
Dina Bowman ◽  
Simon Biggs
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Narrative Interviews ◽  
Social Gerontology ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Part Time

A major theme within social gerontology is how retirement ‘is being re-organised, if not undone’. Institutional supports for retirement are weakening, with pension ages rising in many countries. Increasing numbers of older workers are working past traditional retirement age on a part-time or self-employed basis, and a growing minority are joining the ranks of the long-term unemployed. Drawing upon narrative interviews with older Australians who are involuntarily non-employed or underemployed, this article explores how the ‘unravelling’ of retirement is experienced by a group of older workers on the periphery of the labour market. While policy makers hope that higher pension ages will lead to a longer period of working life, the risk is that older workers, especially those experiencing chronic insecurity in the labour market, will be caught in a netherworld between work and retirement.

How Different is the Older Labour Market? Attitudes to Work and Retirement among Older People in Britain

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen McNair
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
The Uk

Governments are seeking strategies to extend working life, but with limited evidence on the attitudes to work, and motivation of workers over 50. This paper reports the findings of two national surveys which aimed to increase understanding of the attitudes to work of older people in the UK. They found that older people generally view work very positively, but that the forces which divide the labour market as a whole have an increasingly polarising effect as people grow older. The paper suggests that successful implementation of ‘extending working life’ policies will depend on a better understanding of the quality of work, of the diversity of older workers, and of the role of training.

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