Female Labor Force Status and Couple's Marital Satisfaction: A Chinese Analysis

While China has decreasing female labor participation and increasing marital instability, compared to the rest of the world, its female labor participation rate is higher on average. The effect of female labor force status on couples' marital satisfaction, as one of the main factors for evaluating marital quality, has been separately discussed, including extensive margins considering whether women are in the labor market and intensive margins on women working hours per week. This study analyzed data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) using a binary logit model and a stability test. Results showed that the work hours, rather than the occupational status, of women affect marital satisfaction. In addition, regardless of the gender role attitudes held by the couple, marital satisfaction increases when women are in the labor market. This study has retroactively reviewed the effects of women working outside the home on marital quality. The dual roles of Chinese women, as both employee and homemaker, have been socially accepted. However, the requirements of maintaining multiple roles often contradict and present conflicts among the roles, time, and pressure, in the long run, giving rise to marital dissatisfaction.

The Association Between Presenting Visual Impairment, Health, and Employment Status

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of visual impairment and correctable visual impairment (i.e., uncorrected refractive errors) on being out of the labor force and on unemployment. The effect of health on labor force status was also investigated. Method: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 1999 to 2008 ( N = 15,650) was used for this study. Participants were classified into three vision status groups: normal, correctable visual impairment, and visual impairment. Statistical analyses utilized were chi-square and logistic regression. Results: Having a visual impairment was significantly associated with being out of the labor force, while having a correctable visual impairment was not. Conversely, having a correctable visual impairment was associated with unemployment, while having a visual impairment was not. Being out of the labor force was not significantly associated with health for those with a visual impairment, although it was for those with correctable visual impairments and normal vision. Discussion: Given previous research, it was surprising to find that health was not associated with being out of the labor force for those with visual impairments. Perhaps other disadvantages for the people with visual impairments identified in this study contributed to their higher out-of-the-labor-force rates regardless of health. Implications for practitioners: Researchers utilizing national data sets that rely on self-reports to identify visual impairments should realize that some of those who self-identify as being visually impaired may actually have correctable visual impairments. Current research is needed to understand why a majority of people with visual impairments are not seeking employment and have removed themselves from the labor force.

Impact of Turkish policy reform on labor force status of disabled males: A difference-in-difference analysis

This paper aims to study the effect of a Turkish policy reform enacted in 2008 that requires firms to hire disabled applicants. Our attention is only on males to avoid complications arising from gender differences in disability and labor force participation. The data is from the Turkey Health Survey (THS) of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) for the years 2008 and 2012. We define ?disability? as an impairment of long-term health conditions that lasts more than six months and that restricts the individual in daily activities. We use difference-in-difference (DD) estimation, in which the DD estimator is the difference between disabled and nondisabled individuals in the difference in labor force participation before and after the new policy. The results suggest an insignificant effect of the treatment on the treated, implying that the policy reform does not create any incentive for disabled males to participate in the labor force.

Equivalent Pathways? Comparison of Job History for High School Graduates Versus GED Recipients

Successful integration into the paid labor market serves as a critical milestone to adulthood. Yet, this school-to-work transition has become harder to reach due to the increasing precarity in the youth labor market. Using data from the NLSY97, this study compares the job histories of young adults whose terminal education credentials are high school diploma versus GED. I conducted sequence analysis of school-to-work states from age 16 to 30 between these two education groups. Findings show that GED holders are more likely to be exposed to enduring negative labor force status (e.g., periods of unemployment) than the high school graduates. Over half of the GED recipients experience precarious early career characterized by interruptions and long-term inactivity. Despite being “equivalent” to a high school diploma, the GED diploma does not translate into the same opportunity structure as the high school degree, launching a cumulative disadvantage process in the early life course.