scholarly journals Changes in the Age and Education Profile of Displaced Workers

ILR Review ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 498-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Rodriguez ◽  
Madeline Zavodny

This analysis of data from the Displaced Workers Surveys suggests that between the periods 1983–87 and 1993–97, although the likelihood of involuntary job loss declined among most age groups, including older workers, it rose for middle-aged and older workers relative to younger workers. Three potential explanations for this shift the authors investigate are changes in educational attainment, changes in the relationship between education and displacement, and industry shifts that had adverse effects on older workers relative to younger workers. The results of the analysis indicate that the relative displacement rate among college graduates increased over time, but there were few significant changes in the relationship between displacement and education within or across age groups. The probability of displacement increased significantly for workers in service-related industries across all age groups. The results do not conclusively indicate why older workers' relative risk of displacement increased but do rule out several possibilities.

1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bilha Mannheim ◽  
Josef Rein

This study explores the relationships between work centrality, age and the wish to stop working in a sample of 755 males in Israel, classified into five occupational categories. Contrary to disengagement theory, no relationship was found between age and work centrality in any occupational group. Occupational situs was found to intervene in the relationship between age and the wish to stop working. Those willing to stop working have lower work centrality in all age groups, and intrinsic job rewards have a moderating effect on this relationship. The factors affecting work centrality of older workers differ from those affecting younger workers.


2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHILIP TAYLOR

This study examined the relationship between suicide rates among men since 1975 and rates of unemployment and labour force participation in 20 countries. Previous research has found statistically significant correlations between suicide and unemployment rates over time among young people in a number of countries. This study has extended this research to include different age groups of men. The findings for younger workers largely confirm the findings of previous studies. Among older workers, however, unemployment and suicide rates are largely unrelated, notable exceptions including Japan and the USA. The implications of this finding for policy making towards older workers are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1152-1166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Chiesa ◽  
Stefano Toderi ◽  
Paola Dordoni ◽  
Kene Henkens ◽  
Elena Maria Fiabane ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy. First, the authors intend to test the measurement invariance of Henkens’s (2005) age stereotypes scale across two age group, respectively, under 50 and 50 years and older. Then, the moderator role of age groups in the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is investigated. Design/methodology/approach The survey involved a large sample of 4,667 Italian bank sector’s employees. Findings The results show the invariance of the three dimensional structure of organizational stereotypes towards older workers scale: productivity, reliability and adaptability. Furthermore, the moderation is confirmed: the relationship between organizational age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy is significant only for older respondents. Research limitations/implications Future studies should aim to replicate the findings with longitudinal designs. Practical implications The study suggests the importance to emphasize the positive characteristics of older workers and to reduce the presence of negative age stereotypes in the workplace, especially in order to foster the occupational self-efficacy of older workers. Originality/value The findings are especially relevant in view of the lack of evidence about the relationship between age stereotypes and occupational self-efficacy.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanna Gillberg ◽  
Ewa Wikström

PurposeThis study was undertaken in order to show how talent management (TM) was performed in practice in a multinational organization as well as how the TM practices affected both different groups of workers and the perception of talent within the organization.Design/methodology/approachPerforming talent management was reassessed in the relationship between TM practices, view and identification of talent, attributed positioning and self-positioning of older and younger workers; retrieved from an exploratory single case study in a multinational organization, based on interviews.FindingsThe findings illustrate that despite the struggling to fill key positions with skilled workers, the studied organization adopted approaches to TM that excluded older workers' talent. First, central to performing TM was how talent was viewed and identified, and second, two types of positioning acts were important: the organizations (re)producing of talent management through attributive positioning acts on older/younger workers and older workers' self-positioning of their own talent. The two sides of performing talent management were complex and intertwined resulting in an age-based devaluation of talent at work.Practical implicationsThe study points to important issues in designing and performing TM that may be useful to HR and managers as a point of departure in the development of more inclusive approaches to TM.Originality/valueThe concept “performing talent management” was developed as an intertwined relationship between on-going positioning acts and (re)production of status, talent and age at work; recognizing preferences of what was viewed and identified as valued talent as main drivers made it possible to develop an understanding of exclusion and inclusion mechanisms in performing TM.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-618
Author(s):  
C.A. Viviani ◽  
G. Bravo ◽  
M. Lavallière ◽  
P.M. Arezes ◽  
M. Martínez ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Worldwide ageing and thus, workforce ageing, is a concern for both developed and developing nations. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current research was to determine, through a systematic literature review, the effects of age in three dimensions that are often used to define or assess productivity at work. METHODS: PICO framework was used to generate search strategies, inclusion criteria and terms. Scopus and PubMed databases were used. Peer-reviewed journal papers written in English and published (or in press) between January 2014 and December 2018 were included. RESULTS: After filtering through inclusion criteria, 74 papers were included in the review. Considering productivity, 41%of the findings showed no differences between younger and older workers, 31%report better productivity of younger workers and 28%reported that older workers had better productivity than younger workers. Performance was better in older workers (58%), presenteeism generally showed no significant differences between age groups (61%). Absenteeism was the only outcome where younger workers outperformed older workers (43%). CONCLUSION: Overall, there was no difference in productivity between older and younger workers. Older workers performed better than younger workers, but had more absenteeism, while presenteeism showed no differences. As ageing has come to workplaces, holistic approaches addressing total health are suggested to overcome the worldwide workforce ageing phenomenon.


2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 1093-1112 ◽  
Author(s):  
RITA CLAES ◽  
BART VAN DE VEN

ABSTRACTThroughout the industrialised world, promoting the retention of older workers is high on the agenda of governments, employers, unions and the media, but not at any price. If persuading older workers to stay at work longer is to benefit companies and wider society, then the employees should be committed and satisfied with their decision. This study explores the factors that keep older workers satisfied and committed at work by contrasting samples of older (aged 50 or more years) and younger workers (up to 25 years) in favourable (Sweden) and unfavourable labour markets (Belgium). The core research question is whether the influential factors are different for the two age groups, after controlling for country, gender, educational level, employment sector, supervisory position, and the employee's financial contribution to the household. The predictors included workers' self-reports of skill discretion (i.e. the range of skills used on the job), organisational fairness, and perceived job insecurity. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that, across age groups, skill discretion and organisational fairness predicted both job satisfaction and organisational commitment. For older workers there was a negative impact of perceived job insecurity on job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The national context only affected younger workers. In the unfavourable Belgian labour market, they were more satisfied and committed to their organisation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Örestig

A central finding in earlier research on work orientation is that there are substantial age-differences regarding attitudes to work. Generally, more older workers describe their jobs as intrinsically meaningful than younger workers. This result has been interpreted in three different ways, the psychological, the cultural, and the structural hypotheses, where the first emphasizes cognitive age-differences, the second sees age-differences as outcomes of generational differences, and the third regards them as expressions of labour-market inequalities. These different approaches lead to quite different hypotheses regarding recent developments, but the relevant research is limited. Drawing on data from the Swedish survey of living conditions (ULF), this study has examined attitudinal change within the Swedish workforce during 1979–2003. Three sub-periods, 1986-1987, 1994-1996, and 2001-2003 were compared with 1979, the year of reference. The results showed that a consistently smaller share of the workforce held extrinsic work values in the subsequent periods, and that this applied to all age-groups. Further, the results did not support the assumption of broader cultural differences between generations. Rather, the results provide support for the structural hypothesis. Older workers held extrinsic work values to a lesser degree than younger workers regardless of period. Most strikingly, the gap between the youngest group on the labour market (ages 16–29) and the older groups widened during the period. Furthermore, class differences in the distribution of the extrinsic attitude were intact throughout the study period; manual employees were consistently more likely to hold an extrinsic attitude than were service-class employees. This implies that differences in the probability of extrinsic work attitudes have been identifiable regardless of period, but that their prevalence has decreased as jobs involving features related to extrinsic work values have decreased since 1979.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariona Lozano ◽  
Elisenda Rentería

Long-term unemployment has severe negative consequences. However, little is known about how long people could expect to be unemployed for more than one year during their lifespan, and which age groups are spending more time out of work while looking for jobs. We apply demographic techniques to enhance our understanding of long-term unemployment, and use the European Labour Force Survey and mortality data to calculate the time that a person could expect to be unemployed for more than a year in 25 European countries between 2000 and 2018. We identify four groups of countries that are characterised by different trends in the duration of long-term unemployment. Results show very different impact of the 2008 Recession on the length of long-term unemployment in Europe, and it was especially large in Southern and Eastern countries, as well as in Ireland. In addition, although younger workers record higher rates of long-term unemployment, older workers could expect to spend a larger proportion of their working lives unemployed. Finally, we show that, in some countries, the measure of long-term unemployment has been underestimated due to a discouraged worker effect.


1992 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uriel Leviatan

The paper first explains why industrial societies will shortly need to increase their labour force by including persons of post current retirement age. It then presents two contrasted hypotheses to explain older workers' satisfaction with, and motivation in their work roles: Hypothesis (a), a “focus on compensation” which suggests that older workers seek compensation for deterioration in their sensory-motor potentials; Hypothesis (b), a “focus on relative advantage” which suggests that older workers seek to exploit their relative advantages, namely, their cognitive-emotional abilities and potentials. Reactions would be affected more by opportunities for satisfaction of psychological, higher order needs rather than opportunities for satisfying bodily needs. Validity of Hypothesis (b) is tested by a study of kibbutz workers (235) distributed about equally between the two genders and among three age groups (45-57; 58-67; 68 and over). Results of the analyses support Hypothesis (b) and its derivations. Older workers desire job characteristics that offer opportunities for satisfaction of higher order psychological needs more than they desire characteristics that offer better physical conditions and convenience at work. The former characteristics explain more than the latter characteristics, variance in “satisfaction with work” and variance in “motivation to contribute to job.” The discussion ends with suggestions for further study to answer questions such as: how and when to train workers to prepare them for jobs appropriate at very advanced ages beyond the currently normative retirement age; what should be the structure of jobs fit for older workers; how should they be integrated in work organizations with younger workers; where should the locus of decision regarding these questions be?


ILR Review ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Jacobson ◽  
Robert J. Lalonde ◽  
Daniel Sullivan

The authors estimate the returns to retraining for older displaced workers—those 35 or older—by estimating the impact of community college schooling on earnings. The analysis relies on longitudinal administrative records covering workers displaced from jobs in Washington State during the early 1990s. The authors find that older displaced workers participated in community college schooling at lower rates than younger workers. Among those who participated, however, the impact on quarterly earnings was similar across the two age groups. One academic year of community college schooling is estimated to have increased long-term earnings by about 7% for older men and by about 10% for older women. Although these percentages are consistent with those reported in the schooling literature, estimates of the social internal rates of return from this retraining may differ substantially among older and younger workers because of differences in their work lives and their opportunity costs of retraining.


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