The empirical landscape of extended working lives

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Street
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Demographic Ageing ◽  
Unpaid Care ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Dependency Ratios ◽  
Part Time ◽  
And Gender

Population-level factors associated with demographic ageing and policies intended to encourage older workers to extend working lives in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, UK and US are documented in this chapter. Data are from international sources (mainly the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the CIA Factbook, to ensure comparability) derived from government agencies in the seven countries covered in this volume. Presenting population-level data for each country gives readers a starting point for considering how each nation compares to the others analysed in the later country chapters. Data related to demographic ageing, including patterns in longevity, proportion of national populations aged 65+, and country-specific dependency ratios are presented first. These set the stage for understanding the potential gendered implications of demands for older workers to postpone retirement and extend their working lives. Additional comparative data provided in this chapter include nation-specific patterns of women's and men's labour force participation, gender pay and gender pension gaps, typical retirement ages, and a summary of older worker's recent experiences in the labour market. Patterns of unpaid care work, time use, and full-time versus part-time employment are also compared to provide a foundation against which readers can assess the prospects for older workers in general, and the particular disadvantages faced by older women in particular, when governments demand that individuals postpone retirement and work longer.

scholarly journals ‘Fuller’ or ‘extended’ working lives? Critical perspectives on changing transitions from work to retirement

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRIS PHILLIPSON
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Essential Requirement ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Part Time ◽  
New Forms Of Work

ABSTRACTResearch on older workers and retirement has yet to adjust fully to an environment influenced by a combination of demographic change, technological developments and economic recession. A key dimension to the changing relationship between ageing and work is the tension between policies to extend working life and the increasingly fragmented nature of late working life, with the emergence of varied transitions, including: bridge employment, second/third careers, part-time working, early retirement and other variations. These developments indicate both the challenge of conceptualising new forms of work-ending, and – in policy terms – the extent to which these can successfully accommodate longer working lives. The paper provides a critical perspective to the policy of extending working life and the narrative which underpins this approach. The paper argues that retirement has become a ‘contested’ institution in the 21st century, fragmented across different pathways and transitions affecting people in their fifties and sixties. The paper argues the case for improving work quality and security as a precondition for supporting policies for encouraging working in later life. An essential requirement for this will include linking debates on extending working life with technological developments and changes affecting the workplace, creating differentiated paths to retirement and labour force exit, enhancing the provision of training and continuing education, and re-thinking the idea of the ‘older worker’.

Dependency and Ageing in Britain: A Re-Examination of the Evidence

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Falkingham
Keyword(s):  
Public Expenditure ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Working Population ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Dependency Ratios ◽  
Age Profile ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Unemployment Policy

ABSTRACTThere has been growing concern over the consequences for public expenditure of an increasing number of elderly people dependent on a relatively diminishing working population. This concern stems largely from demographically determined dependency ratios and it is not necessarily the case that a change in the age profile of the population will lead to a greater burden of dependency. The ‘engine of dependency’ is shown to have at least two other cylinders—patterns of labour-force participation across age and gender, and levels of unemployment. Policy to date has had a surprisingly narrow focus in view of the dual role of economic and demographic forces in influencing the ratio of dependency. The economic and political feasibility of alternative policy options is discussed.

Flexible Employment in Later Life: Public Policy Panaceas in the Search for Mechanisms to Extend Working Lives

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Platman
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Flexible Employment ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
The Uk

Flexible employment has been suggested as an important policy solution to ‘the problem’ of inactive older workers. Temporary contracts, part-time jobs, self-employment and freelance consulting have been seen as viable options for people needing to make gradual transitions into retirement and for governments wishing to encourage an extension to working lives. Using the case of the UK, the paper examines the multi-stakeholder appeal of flexible transitions into retirement. However, the term has been poorly defined and conceptualised. Drawing on her own research, the author challenges the notion of flexible extensions to working lives for the oldest members of the labour force.

The policies, practices and predicaments of senior employment in Hong Kong and Singapore

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 1715-1739 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL HIGGINS ◽  
LINA VYAS
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Official Policy ◽  
Worldwide Phenomenon ◽  
Employment Data

ABSTRACTThe ageing of populations is an unprecedented worldwide phenomenon that has created anxiety about labour and skill shortages in many developed countries. One way to address these concerns is to extend the working lives of seniors through appropriate retirement, retention and recruitment policies. This paper utilises official policy documentation and employment data to compare the policies, practices and predicaments of senior employment in Hong Kong and Singapore, two of developed Asia's most ageing economies. It finds that while labour force participation rates among Hong Kong seniors have declined since the early 1990s, older workers in Singapore remain largely confined to the secondary labour market. This paper examines why these trends are occurring and whether longer working lives will lead to greater opportunities for ‘active ageing’ in employment or, conversely, force older workers into a reserve army of labour to maintain their incomes.

scholarly journals Families' Employment and Childcare Arrangements

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Podmore
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Part Time ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

This study investigated parents' experiences and their views on labour force participation, child care arrangements, and parental leave policies. Participants were 60 families with five-year-old children, selected randomly from 14 schools in the greater Wellington region. This paper focuses on parents' employment experiences, with some reference to parental leave. Many mothers had participated in part-time paid work, and the percentage in full-time paid work increased to 19% by the year the children were four to five years of age. Each year from the child's birth up until school entry, over a third of the fathers were working 50 hours or more per week. A high incidence of participation in the early childhood education and care services was evident. There was a relatively low uptake of parental leave among mother and fathers who were in the paid workforce the year the children were born. Some of the main themes addressed in this paper are: diversity and change, the need for flexibility in workplaces, the impact of long hours of paid work on families, financial constraints, and gender roles.

scholarly journals Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110265
Author(s):  
Rachel Ong ◽  
Gavin A Wood ◽  
Melek Cigdem
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Housing Markets ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Housing Wealth ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Imputed Rent

In the life cycle model of consumption and saving, homeownership is an important vehicle for horizontal redistribution. Households accumulate wealth in owner-occupied housing during working lives before benefiting from imputed rent streams in retirement. But in some countries housing wealth’s welfare role has broadened as owners increasingly use flexible mortgages to smooth consumption during working lives. One consequence is higher outstanding mortgages later in life, a burden exacerbated by high real house prices that compel home buyers to demand mortgages that are a growing multiple of their incomes. We investigate whether these developments are prompting longer working lives, an idea that is especially relevant in countries offering relatively low government pensions. Australia is one such country. We use the 2001–2017 panels of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to estimate hazard models of exits from the Australian labour force as workers approach pensionable age. We find that those with high outstanding mortgage debts are more likely to postpone retirement, as are those with relatively low amounts of private pension wealth. These results are stronger in urban housing markets, and especially among males.

Women in Low Status Part-Time Jobs: A Class and Gender Analysis

2000 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 152-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Warren
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Gender Analysis ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Part Time Work

Why, given all the problems associated with part-time employment in Britain, do women work part-time at all? Does the answer to this question lie in gender-based explanations which focus on womenís caring responsibilities? This paper addresses these issues by focusing on the relative experiences of the largest group of part-timers, women working in low status occupations. It is concluded that a gender-informed analysis of womenís part-time employment is clearly vital, but an awareness of further dimensions of social inequality is required if we are to understand diversity amongst part-timers. Relative to full-timers, part-timers are similar in their life-cycle positions, their marital status and motherhood status. However, incorporating a class analysis shows that part-timers in lower status jobs stand apart in that they are disproportionately likely to have been brought up in working class households and, as adults, they are more likely to be living in very low waged households with partners who are also in low paid manual occupations. It is concluded that women go into the lowest status part-time jobs in specific social contexts and, as a result, we cannot lump together into one unified group, women working part-time in manual and higher status occupations, and then talk sensibly about part-time work and its impact on women. It is essential to examine the interaction of gender and class inequalities to better understand these womenís working lives.

scholarly journals Population Ageing and Its Challenges: Filial Responsibilities for Elderly Parents in Lithuania

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
Margarita Gedvilaitė-Kordušienė
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Demographic Ageing ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Financial Difficulties ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Structure Changes ◽  
Working Age ◽  
And Gender ◽  
High Level

The paper addresses the questions of demographic ageing at the beginning of the 21st century and the attitudes about who should be responsible for the elderly care in Lithuania. The analysis of age structure changes revealed three ways of demographic ageing: ‘from below’ (the youngest part of the population is decreasing), ‘from above’ (the oldest part of the population is increasing), and decrease of the young working-age population. The analysis of ageing in Lithuania in the context of the EU revealed that Lithuania has moved from the group of the demographically youngest countries to the group of the oldest ones. This has happened in one decade and illustrates rapid ageing in Lithuania. Within such context, the question “Who should be responsible for the elderly care?” is of particular importance. Based on the second wave of the Generations and Gender Survey (conducted in 2009), the responses who should take care of the elderly are contradictory. The biggest part of respondents is in favour of the division of responsibilities for the elderly care between family and society. The same part of respondents considers this to be family responsibility. Meanwhile, financial support is mainly considered to be the responsibility of the society. The analysis of filial responsibilities for elderly parents revealed a high level of normative solidarity. Most respondents agree with the statement where the support type for elderly parents is not defined (i.e. that children should take responsibility for caring for their parents when parents are in need). When the types of support are defined, the respondents are also likely to agree (i.e. children ought to provide financial help for their parents when their parents are having financial difficulties; children should have their parents to live with them when parents can no longer look after themselves). Less agreement was found on the statement requiring the reorganisation of children’s lives in order to fulfil filial responsibilities (i.e. that children should adjust their working lives to the needs of their parents) and on the statement measuring gender division in care provision for elderly parents (i.e. when parents are in need, daughters should take more caring responsibility than sons). The differences in attitudes between children’s, parents’ and grandparents’ generations were not statistically significant. The logistic regressions revealed that significant predictors enhancing the chances of agreement on filial responsibilities are respondents’ gender, age, partnership and occupational statuses and type of residential area.

scholarly journals The forgotten labour force: Characteristics and trends for older female part-time workers in Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-60
Author(s):  
Maeve O’Sullivan ◽  
Christine Cross ◽  
Jonathan Lavelle
Keyword(s):  
Work Experience ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Female Labour ◽  
Female Workers ◽  
Female Part ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
First Time ◽  
Force Characteristics

AbstractChanging labour markets, educational attainment, work experience, constraints and preferences have all been proposed to explain the features of contemporary female labour force participation. This engagement has been characterised as part-time and segregated in low status, poorly paid jobs. Despite the fact that almost half of all older female workers are employed part-time, there is a dearth of information on who these workers are (the forgotten labour force) and what, if anything has changed over time for this cohort. For the first time, key variables are drawn from three labour force datasets over a 16-year period to provide a likely profile of the older female part-time worker, highlight where they work and in what capacity, as well as shedding light on what has changed over this period. This trend analysis highlights significant changes for this worker cohort, the implications of which are discussed from individual, organisational and societal perspectives.

“Fuller” or “extended” working lives: a critical commentary

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Phillipson
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Older Worker ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to, first, provide some background to the treatment of older workers; second, highlight the distinction between a “fuller” and an “extended” working life; third, note the importance of separating out different groups within the category “older worker”; finally, identify areas for action to suppose those now facing working into their 60s and beyond. Design/methodology/approach – Commentary paper analysing development of policies towards older workers. Findings – This paper identifies problems implementing policy of extending working and provides various areas of action to support older workers. Research limitations/implications – This paper suggests extending work unlikely to be achieved without ensuring greater security for older workers. Practical implications – Importance of developing more support for older workers. Social implications – Challenge of resolving insecurity in the labour force as an impediment to extended working. Originality/value – This paper outlines a critical assessment of current government policy towards older workers.

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