Boundaries of the Construct of Unemployment in the Preretirement Years: Exploring an Expanded Measurement of Lost-Work Opportunity

Costs of Forced Retirement: Measuring the Effect of Lost Work Opportunity on Health

OBJECTIVE

Unemployment is a known health stressor that also increases early retirements. This study addresses mixed literature on retiree health and underreporting of forced retirement to better identify potential health impacts of lost work opportunity.

METHODS

A Lost-work Opportunity Score (LOS) was created using variables from the Health and Retirement Study assessing unemployment, forced retirement, and earlier-than-planned retirement for 2576 respondents. Reliability and unidimensionality of the score with multivariate regression analyses examined health impacts controlling for demographics and prior health status.

RESULTS

The LOS possessed unidimensionality with a Cronbach's alpha of a = 0.76 while predicting self-reported health declines (LOS = 2; β = 0.381, OR = 1.464, P < 0.05) and depression increase (LOS = 2; β = 0.417, OR = 1.517, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

LOS predicts 46% increased odds of negative self-reported health change after retirement associated with two LOS events, with implications to support aging workers.

A Mixed-Methods Examination of Lost Occupational Choice in Retirement

Lost work opportunity and forced retirement demonstrate negative health impacts related to occupational deprivation. Measuring occupational loss during the retirement transition can be problematic. The objective of the study is to clarify measurement of involuntary retirement in its relationship to occupational loss and deprivation. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, survey data on unemployment, forced retirement, and earlier-than-planned retirement from 195 screened retirees yielded 102 reporting at least one lost work opportunity event, with 18 interviewed about occupational loss within the analytic timeframe. Planned retirement age was similar for full-employment and lost work opportunity groups. Actual retirement age was earlier in the lost work opportunity sample (age 57.5 compared with 61.2). Interviews identified a 22% discrepancy between forced retirement reported in survey versus interview data. Themes emerging from the interviews indicated financial and identity challenges from lost work opportunity, a dialectical trade-off between lost opportunity and daily freedom, and overall resilience.

Indicators and determinants of the years of working life lost: a narrative review

Objective:

This narrative review summarizes the available indicators for working life expectancy and years of working life lost (YWLL) and their determinants.

Methods:

We searched PubMed and Embase databases from their inception until August 2020 and screened all studies proposing an indicator for working life expectancy or YWLL. We also reviewed studies focusing on sociodemographic, lifestyle and work-related determinants of working life expectancy and YWLL. The results were synthesized narratively.

Results:

We identified 13 different indicators for the length of working life or YWLL. The most frequently used indicators were ‘working life expectancy’, ‘healthy working life expectancy’, and YWLL. Working life expectancy and healthy working life expectancy are longer for men than women. Working life expectancy at the age of 50 has been increasing since the mid-90s, and the increase has been larger for women, reducing the sex difference. Working life is shorter for people with a low level of education, in lower occupational classes, for people exposed to high physical work demands, those living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas, people with overweight or obesity, smokers, people who are inactive during leisure time and in people with a chronic health problem.

Conclusions:

Despite increasing interest in understanding the determinants of YWLL, only a few studies have simultaneously considered multiple exit routes from the labour market. We propose a new measure for total YWLL considering all relevant exit routes from employment. This comprehensive measure can be used to assess the effect of given policy changes on prolonging working life.

Disparate Disruptions: Intersectional COVID-19 Employment Effects by Age, Gender, Education, and Race/Ethnicity

These are unprecedented times, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts public health, social interaction, and employment attachments. Evidence to date has been about broad shifts in unemployment rates as a percent of the labor force. We draw on monthly Current Population Survey data to examine subpopulation changes in employment states across the life course, from January through April 2020. COVID-19 downturns produced disparate life-course impacts. There are increases in unemployment and being out of the workforce at all ages, but especially among young adults, with young women most at risk. Intersectional analyses document conjoint life-course vulnerabilities by gender, educational attainment, and race/ethnicity. For example, Black men aged 20-29 with a college degree experienced a 12.4 percentage point increase in being not in the labor force for other reasons (NILF-other). Individuals with less than a college degree in their 50s and 60s were more likely to become unemployed, regardless of race. And more non-college-educated Asian men in their 60s and 70s reported being retired (6.6 and 8.9 percentage point increases, respectively). Repercussions from the pandemic may well challenge assumptions and possibilities for older adults' working longer.