Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a multilevel for growth analysis

Feer, Sonja; Lipps, Oliver; Dratva, Julia; Baumann, Isabel

Publication type:	Conference poster
Type of review:	Peer review (abstract)
Title:	Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a multilevel for growth analysis
Authors:	Feer, Sonja Lipps, Oliver Dratva, Julia Baumann, Isabel
Conference details:	IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019
Issue Date:	2019
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	331: Labor economics 610: Medicine and health
Abstract:	Background and aims: In the context of an aging workforce in many Western societies, there exists extensive policy efforts to promote the labour market participation of older workers. Yet, previous research indicates that older workers often exit the labor force prematurely due to health problems. This seems to be particularly pronounced among workers in manual occupations. We examine whether changes in general health status among older workers are associated with changes in working hours and whether the potential association varies by occupation. Methods: We use data from the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) to analyse older workers’ long-term trajectories measured in terms of working hours and general health status. The sample includes almost 40,000 workers aged 50 to 65 (men) / 64 (women) who worked at least in one year between 1999 and 2017. We use a bivariate multilevel model for growth, which allows examining between- and within-individual changes in both working hours and general health status over time. Accordingly, we analyse associations between working hours and health related growth patterns as well as their individual heterogeneity. Results: Controlling for the level and the time effects of working hours and general health status, we find that people in different occupations exhibit different variances of level and slopes of working hours and general health status. For example, our analysis shows that the working hours of individuals in manual occupations co-vary more strongly with general health status than individuals in non-manual occupations. This finding suggests that the labour market participation of manual workers reacts more sensitively to their health status. Conclusion: These findings contribute to the debate about the labour force integration of older workers in the context of an extension of working time. Older workers in manual occupations with adverse health conditions may face higher difficulties to remain in the labour force until statutory retirement age. Measures to prevent adverse health among manual workers may therefore be promoted.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/17240
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Not specified
Departement:	School of Health Sciences
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Public Health (IPH)
Published as part of the ZHAW project:	Gesundheitliche Ungleichheit im Kontext einer Verlängerung des Arbeitslebens
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Gesundheit

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Feer, S., Lipps, O., Dratva, J., & Baumann, I. (2019). Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a multilevel for growth analysis. IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019.

Feer, S. et al. (2019) ‘Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a multilevel for growth analysis’, in IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019.

S. Feer, O. Lipps, J. Dratva, and I. Baumann, “Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a multilevel for growth analysis,” in IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019, 2019.

FEER, Sonja, Oliver LIPPS, Julia DRATVA und Isabel BAUMANN, 2019. Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a multilevel for growth analysis. In: IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019. Conference poster. 2019

Feer, Sonja, Oliver Lipps, Julia Dratva, and Isabel Baumann. 2019. “Health Status and Labour Force Participation among Older Workers in Switzerland : A Multilevel for Growth Analysis.” Conference poster. In IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019.

Feer, Sonja, et al. “Health Status and Labour Force Participation among Older Workers in Switzerland : A Multilevel for Growth Analysis.” IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019, 2019.