Curvilinear Relations Between Parallel Multiple Jobs and Physical Activities Functioning/Mental Health Problems: The Evidence From an Agriculture Population

Effect of Side Jobs and Psychological Distress on Employee Turnover in Japanese Employees: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVES

We investigated the impact of engaging in side jobs on turnover and its interaction with psychological distress among Japanese employees.

METHODS

A prospective cohort study was conducted using a questionnaire-based survey. We investigated 2783 full-time employees in companies permitting side jobs. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between side jobs and turnover, and its relationship stratified by psychological distress.

RESULTS

Employees engaging in side jobs had higher odds ratios (ORs) for turnover after adjusting for covariates, including psychological distress (OR, 1.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.22 to 1.93). Among those under psychological distress, ORs for turnover were significantly higher (OR, 1.96; 95% confidence interval, 1.39 to 2.76). Conversely, in employees without distress, no significant difference was observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Side job engagement correlates with higher turnover, particularly among employees under psychological distress.

Multiple job holding, working hours, and hypertension by race/ethnicity and sex

The number of Americans with multiple jobs is increasing and multiple jobholders work more hours per week. However, the associations between multiple jobholding and hypertension are unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of multiple jobholding with hypertension and determine whether weekly working hours moderated this association. Data from the 2015 National Health Interview Survey on adults (age ≥18 years) were used and included participants who self-identified as non-Hispanic Asian, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, or non-Hispanic White in the U.S. (n = 16,926), The associations of multiple jobholding with self-reported hypertension by sex were assessed using modified Poisson regressions. Both the number of working hours per week and race/ethnicity were assessed as moderators using multiplicative interaction terms. Multiple jobholding was not associated with hypertension among women. However, there was a significant three-way interaction such that multiple jobholding was associated with hypertension among non-Hispanic Black men who worked ≥55 hours per week (relative risk = 1.02, 95% confidence interval = 1.01-1.05). The results suggest that the associations between multiple jobholding, number of working hours, and hypertension should be examined at the intersection of race/ethnicity and sex. Future studies should further characterize multiple jobholding and hypertension among non-Hispanic Black men.

Late-Life Working Participation and Mental Health Risk of Retirement-Aged Workers: How Much Impact Will There Be From Social Security System?

PURPOSE

Increasing retirement-aged workers are encouraged to stay in the labor market, as delayed retirement initiative is proposed. This study investigates the interplay of late-life working participation and social security on the mental health risk of retirement-aged workers.

METHOD

We applied data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS-2018), and the instrumental variables regression was conducted.

RESULTS

Late-life working could alleviate depression, as did the beneficiary status of employment-based social health insurance and the pensionable phase of social pension participation. Besides, the role of late-life working in alleviating depression became more salient when late retirees were not insured by the employment-based social health insurance and still in the pension contribution phase.

CONCLUSIONS

It is suggested that the current social security system in China has not been sufficiently well designed to protect the mental health of retirement-aged workers.

The dilemma of dual adaptation to delayed retirement initiative and work model change of gig economy: the influence of late retirement and multiple-job holding on mental health among older workers

PURPOSE

A growing number of older workers engage in multiple jobs in the context of delayed retirement initiative and the fast-growing gig economy in China. However, it remains unclear whether multiple jobs holding is beneficial to late retirees.

METHODS

To preliminarily address this issue, this study applies the data of CHARLS-2015 to examine the effect of late retirement and multiple-job holding on mental health among older adults. Besides, instrumental variables (IVs) regression is conducted to clarify potential endogeneity problem.

RESULTS

It is shown that both late retirement (coef. = - 2.726, p < 0.01) and multiple-job holding (coef. = - 1.523, p < 0.01) alleviate depression among older adults. However, multiple-job holding would weaken the relationship between late retirement and depression (coef. = 2.019, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that although the modest engagement in late careers and multiple-job holding could benefit mental health, respectively, the overlap of them could be overburdened for older adults. Policymakers should be aware of the occupational risk of multiple-job holding when incentivizing the delayed retirement to address the population aging.

Understanding the health outcomes of the work pattern transformation in the age of gig economy: an investigation of the association between multiple-job holding and health status in the United States and China

OBJECTIVE

The Slash (multiple-job holders) become increasingly prevalent in the labor force under the context of fast-developing gig economy and other emerging employment forms active on platforms. However, health outcomes of multiple-job holding have not received sufficient research treatment and is far from reaching consensus. This study provides an empirical investigation on the influence of multiple-job holding on individual health.

METHOD

This study uses data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS-2015 survey) which covers 28 provinces/municipalities in China and tracks work and health status of the population aged over 45 years using stratified random sampling (N = 12,659-16,526 for examinations of different types of health status (i.e., chronic conditions/body aches/depression, in study 1), and from the Survey of Household Economics and Decision-making (SHED-2019) which is conducted by the Federal Reserve Board of the United States and documents economic behavior and related risks of the population aged over 18 years (N = 6603 for baseline model and N = 10,718 for supplementary test, in study 2). To address the potential endogeneity of multiple-job holding, the instrumental variable (IV) regressions are conducted to ensure the validity of results. The implementation of Study 1 and 2 in different national context could help test the generalization of research results.

RESULTS

Compared with non-multiple jobs holding, multiple-job holding with only one additional job is associated with better health status (i.e., less chronic conditions and body aches, a lower level of depression shown in study 1, and better self-assessed general health shown in study 2), however, multiple-job holding with at least two additional jobs turns to be associated with worse health status (shown in both study 1 and 2). These results show that the optimal level of multiple-job holding could be featured with one additional job besides the primary job.

CONCLUSION

Multiple-job holding, with different structures, has both bright and dark side for health outcomes. To maintain an optimal level of multiple-job holding could benefit individual health.

The influence of late retirement on health outcomes among older adults in the policy context of delayed retirement initiative: an empirical attempt of clarifying identification bias

Background

The deepening population aging is urging policy makers to launch delayed retirement initiative, when the society is faced with unprecedented challenges of shrinking labor supply, heavier pension burdens and slowing economic growth. However, the health outcomes of late retirees receive scarce attention due to the intrinsic identification difficulties (i.e., (1) self-selection bias – older adults with predetermined ill-health are less likely to delay retirement. (2) there can be situations where the status of late retirement has terminated at the time of interview, although he/she has ever delayed retirement). To fill in this research gap, this study examines the effect of late retirement on the difficulty in physical functioning and problems of cognitive status among older adults.

Method

Using the data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS-2015 harmonized, and CHARLS-2018), this study investigates the influence of late retirement (year 2015) on the difficulty in physical functioning and problems of cognitive status (year 2018) among older adults. A series of robustness checks are also conducted.

Results

Empirical results show that late retirement is associated with better physical functioning and cognitive status. The influence remains robust after considering potential self-selection bias and the sensitivity of including/excluding older adults who have past late retirement experience but have no longer been late retirees at the time of survey.

Conclusion

This study suggests that older adults might benefit from the engagement in late careers in their physical and cognitive functioning.