Unemployment and retirement and ill-health: a cross-sectional analysis across European countries (original) (raw)
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Effects of health on the labour force participation of older persons in Europe
H e a l t h e c o n o m i c s l e t t e r q u estions d'économie de la santé results Background InstItute for research and InformatIon In health edonomIcs Address: 10, rue Vauvenargues 75018 Paris -France Téléphone : 33 (0)1 53 93 43 02/17 Télécopie : 33 (0)1 53 93 43 50 This is an international and multidisciplinary survey of a sample of households with at least one member aged 50 or over across Europe. The idea is to create a European panel database to investigate health and socio-economic aspects of ageing. The 2004 survey involved 10 the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The survey questions, which are identical in all countries, relate to health status, socio-economic status and living conditions.
In which ways do unhealthy people older than 50 exit the labour market in France?
The European Journal of Health Economics, 2010
Among 55-64 year olds, poor health is a reason for leaving the labour market early within the framework of schemes such as not only Early Retirement for Certain Employees (or Early Retirement for Asbestos Workers), but also by absence from the workforce (sick pay and disability pensions, respectively). It is interesting to single out the controlling factors for participation in or absence from the labour market after 50 and the link between poor health and employment status. The prevalence of functional limitations in everyday activities leads to a more pronounced exclusion of those over 50 years old from the labour market. Some of those aged between 55 and 59 on disability benefits become unemployed and do not look for work; in other words, they are potentially exempted from job-seeking. This would confirm the hypothesis that some of those exempted from job-seeking are in poor health.
Labour force participation of the elderly in Europe: The importance of being healthy
2005
In this paper we study labour force participation behaviour of individuals aged 50-64 in 11 European countries.The data are drawn from the new Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).The empirical analysis shows that health is multi-dimensional, in the sense that different health indicators have their own significant impact on individuals' participation decisions.Health effects differ markedly between countries.A
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2001
Objective: The objectives were ® rst to analyse diVerences in long-standing illness, limiting long-standing illness, and perceived health as below good in relation to diVerent indicators of social class over time; and secondly to analyse the association of long-standing illness, educational level, age, and gender with employment status. Subjects and methods: Self-reported information on illness, educational level, employment status, and occupational class was obtained in two nationally representative Danish health interview surveys in 1987 (n= 4753) and 1994 (n= 4668). Results: There was a marked increase in long-standing illness from 1987 (33%) to 1994 (38%), especially among women with higher education (13% in 1987 to 26% in 1994). The prevalence of perceived health below good was unchanged (c. 20%) during the same period. Among employed men in 1987 the lowest prevalence of long-standing illness was seen in upper salaried employees (21%) and the highest in skilled workers (35%). In 1994, the diVerence had diminished and the prevalence rates for the same classes were 28% and 29%, respectively. Among employed women, a similar pattern was seen. The lowest rate in 1987 was seen among self-employed with subordinates (15%) and the highest in self-employed without subordinates (28%). In 1994, the diVerence was reduced with prevalence rates of 23% and 32%, respectively. In addition, substantial diVerences in health status between groups with diVerent educational backgrounds were found. The proportion of the population with long-standing illnesses was clearly higher in the group with low education compared with the group with high education. A similar social gradient was found for perceived health as below good. Those with the highest odds ratio of being a disability pensioner are women with long-standing illness, only basic education, and above 55 years of age. Conclusion: In conclusion, the study showed that the prevalence of long-standing illness increased from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, whereas perceived health below good was unchanged. In 1994, there was a remarkable diVerence in health between employed and non-employed people, indicating a health-related exclusion from the labour market. This may explain why, in 1994, smaller occupational class diVerences were found in the prevalence of long-standing illness among employed people compared with the ® ndings in 1987, whereas the health diVerences remained in the diVerent educational groups. Women above 54 years of age with basic education only and long-standing illness have the highest odds ratio of permanent exclusion from the labour market.
Canadian Journal on Aging, 2021
A prominent demographic trend throughout the industrialized world is population aging. Concerns about economic growth and labour force shortages have led many European nations to enact policies aimed at prolonging working life. Understanding how paid work among late-middle-aged and senior adults is associated with health is therefore important. Using a sample of persons who were 50–75 years of age in 2015 from waves six (2015) and seven (2017) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (n = 38,884), this study shows how a comprehensive set of six workforce involvement/transitions patterns are associated with health. The results show benefits of paid work, especially among respondents having financial difficulties. There is further heterogeneity by gender. The more fragmented employment histories of 50–75-year-old women are associated with stable paid work being of less benefit for addressing financial difficulties and with their health being especially vulnerable to unemployment while they are undergoing financial troubles.
Health and Employment Status. The Case of Austria
There are considerable differences in the incidence of sickness, the pattern of diseases and the duration of episodes of sickness by age, gender, education and employment status. Employed have a significantly better health record than the unemployed. The question why this should be so is followed up in this paper. The data base is microcensus data, i.e., household health surveys, complemented by administrative data (morbidity rates of the employed and unemployed) and data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The starting point of the analysis is the calculation of morbidity rates of different population groups, i.e., the number of days of sickness over a year, followed by the establishment of the linkage between the morbidity rate and an index of subjective feelings of wellbeing. The morbidity rate can be decomposed into the frequency of spells of sickness and the average duration of a spell of sickness. The age group which experiences the most frequent episodes of sickness are the elderly, followed by small children. However, the average duration of a spell of sickness is comparatively short in the case of children and quite long for older persons. Accordingly, the morbidity rate by age is slightly u-shaped, i.e., children under five have higher rates than youngsters between 5 and 15, the age groups with the lowest sickness rates. Thereafter the sickness rate rises exponentially with age. The gender pattern of morbidity rates by age has changed between the early 1970s and the late 1990s. The morbidity rate does not only depend on demographic factors like age and gender, but also on socioeconomic factors like educational attainment level and employment status. There is a decreasing trend of morbidity with rising educational attainment. The mechanism by which education may influence health is the life style, i.e., an awareness of individuals of • Thanks are due to ESF/Equal for funding the research and to ICCR for providing the European Community Household Panel Data (ECHP, Version 2003). I also acknowledge the competent research assistance of Paul Scheibelhofer and Julia Bock-Schappelwein. the role of nutrition, smoking, physical exercise, frequency of getting medical advice for one's health. Another factor which may promote the linkage between the morbidity rate and the educational attainment level is the type of work open to people with different educational background and thus work related diseases. Unemployed have significantly higher morbidity rates than employed, independent of age. In 1999 the morbidity rate of the unemployed was more than double the rate of the employed (23 days of sickness p.a. on average compared to 9.3 days). Employed tend to lead healthier lifestyles than unemployed, documented by regular sports activities and health conscious nutrition. While the differential between employed and unemployed in the case of regular sports activities is bipolar, i.e., particularly pronounced for unskilled and highly skilled, it is concentrated in the medium skill bracket when health conscious nutrition is concerned. The analyses of health data of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) and microcensus data suggest that the 'healthy worker effect', i.e., the lower morbidity rate of employed compared to unemployed workers, is at least partly the result of explicit screening of the employed by their health record. This is to say that in the course of micro-economic reform, structural change and cyclical downturns persons with a bad health record are amongst the first to be made redundant. In addition, unemployment per se may act as a psychological stress factor and through that mechanism exacerbate health problems. This fact has to be taken into account when drawing up measures to reintegrate unemployed, particularly long term unemployed, into the labour market.
Unemployment and health status in Europe
The present study tries to shed some light on the understanding of factors associated with unemployment in the European context. During the last decades, Europe experienced intense geopolitical transformations, with warfare and the emergence of newly independent states in its central and eastern portion, and the unification of richer western countries. The enlargement of the European Union is expected to promote development and improved social standings for candidate and future candidate countries. However, as the accession process requires adopting a common legislation, limited resources and significantly lower health status in central and eastern Europe challenge this expectation .
Unfit for work: Health and labour-market prospects
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2018
Aim: The aim of this study was to examine whether health status (number of chronic diseases, health shock and use of tranquilizers/sleeping pills) is related to labour-market outcomes later in life. Methods: Twin data for Finnish men and women who were at least 33 years old in 1990 were linked to comprehensive register-based information on unemployment and the incidence of disability pension. We used the within-twin dimension of the data to account for shared family and genetic factors. Self-reported information on the number of diagnosed chronic diseases, health shock and drug use were obtained from the 1975 and 1981 twin surveys, when the twins were at least 18 years old. Unemployment months and the incidence of disability pension were measured during prime working age over the 1990–2004/2009 period. Results: Poor health status is significantly positively related to unemployment and the incidence of disability pension. The results are robust to controlling for shared family and ge...
Social science & medicine (1982), 1996
In this paper we examine the link between unemployment and health. The negative health selection hypothesis, which proposes that poor health poses an unemployment risk, is tested using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). The statistical influence of health related variables on the duration of employment for a cohort of workers is estimated. Results from the Cox proportional hazards regression model show gender and nationality specific negative selection. In the event of a long or chronic illness female workers are at a higher risk of unemployment than male workers. Whereas chronic illness raises the probability of unemployment among foreign workers, there is no statistical evidence for this for German workers. The paper, thus, shows that health factors determining unemployment affect different types of workers in different ways. Consequently, results from aggregate studies may be misleading. A second result of the paper is that, irrespective of gender and nationality,...