Work-related challenges and their associated coping mechanisms among female head porters (Kayayei) in Ghana.

Background: While internal migrants (Kayayei) in Ghana have been perceived as a vulnerable group facing various health-related challenges, there has not been enough research on the impact of their work on their health and well-being. This study investigated the lived experiences of the Kayayei to identify the health-related challenges associated with their work and the coping mechanisms they adopt in dealing with these challenges. Methods: We interviewed 21 participants purposely selected and conducted two focus group discussions (FGD) of five participants each at the Agbogbloshie market. Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis Approach was used to identify themes and sub-themes. Statements from participants were presented as quotes to corroborate their views. Results: The work-related challenges identified in the study were physical health, mental health, accommodation, and social challenges. Religion, recreation, social support, hope, resilience, and self-medication were the coping strategies adopted by the study participants. Conclusion: The government of Ghana should be encouraged to work with stakeholders like social welfare to raise awareness about women's rights, build their skills to increase their employment opportunities, enhance their safety, health, and overall well-being. It is also important to ensure the networking of relevant stakeholders to work with women in the informal sector to foster agency and provide support when needed.

The impact of multiple discrimination on labor misallocation of China: Based on fsQCA method.

Discrimination in the labor market hinders efficient labor allocation, impeding socio-economic health. With the rapid population aging in China, addressing multifaceted discrimination to enhance labor allocation efficiency emerges as a crucial area of research. To explore the relationship between five types of discrimination (age, gender, hukou, educational background, and occupation) and labor misallocation, this paper based on intersectionality theory, employs the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method to conduct a configurational analysis of data from China. The research findings indicate that none of the five forms of discrimination can be deemed a necessary condition for achieving high-level labor misallocation. The study identifies five distinct pathways of multiple discrimination to form high-level labor misallocation, which can be classified into four interaction modes: age-hukou, gender-hukou, gender-occupation, and age-gender-educational background. Meanwhile, there are four configuration paths for the absence of labor misallocation. This study reveals the intricate mechanisms by which multiple forms of discrimination contribute to labor misallocation in China's labor market, and provides valuable insights for addressing employment discrimination and improving the efficiency of labor allocation.

Recent Trends and Challenges in Employment for Emergency Medicine Trainees: A Survey of Graduating Residents' Perspectives.

OBJECTIVES: The landscape of the emergency medicine (EM) workforce has undergone significant changes recently, posing challenges for residents who are about to graduate from EM training programs. The objective of this study was to survey graduating residents' perceptions of the recent EM job market. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey study involving EM residents from programs in New York and New Jersey between August 2021 and November 2021. The survey consisted of 12 multiple-choice questions that focused on graduating EM residents' perceptions of the EM job market, its impact on their job search, and their interest in pursuing fellowship training. RESULTS: During the study period, 436 survey results were collected from 26 EM residency programs. Of the 418 respondents, 233 (56%) expressed their intention to start their job search earlier than their counterparts in previous years, as highlighted by the survey. Among respondents, 141 (76%) postgraduate year (PGY)-2, 139 (79%) PGY-3, and 47 (85%) PGY-4 residents anticipated a challenging job search. Nearly 90% of respondents believed that the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic would affect both academic and nonacademic medical centers in terms of job openings. A total of 248 (59%) were interested in pursuing a fellowship after residency. Most residents preferred job opportunities on the East and West Coasts of the United States. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the increasing competitiveness and challenges residents face in securing their first job, the declining interest in pursuing fellowships as residents progress in their training, and the geographic preferences for job opportunities.

Social marketing and happiness in employment. Evidences from Glassdoor.

BACKGROUND: With the increasing role of the Internet and social media, there are more significant opportunities for employees to express their opinions about the companies they work for more directly. A recognized job review website is Glassdoor.com, which collects employees' opinions anonymously and the scores they give to companies. This descriptive study analyzes the assessment that employees give to companies by studying the advantages in their comments from the perspective of Happiness Management and Social Marketing. In this sense, this research aims to analyze how the main benefits offered by companies, are linked to the happiness of employees and to the actions of social marketing that companies develop affect the general satisfaction of employees. METHODS: This study has used in the worker comments, text mining, and inferential analysis techniques. The sample was divided into two blocks, with comments that refer to issues about social marketing and happiness. In each one, an inferential analysis was carried out using the Student's T-test. This analysis allowed us to identify, in each sample of comments, in which advantages the differences in the mean ratings were significant depending on whether they were mentioned. RESULTS: The main results indicate that social marketing and happiness are linked to the advantages employees comment on in reviews on Glassdoor. Significant differences exist in the average ratings of certain advantages depending on whether they are mentioned or not in the comments. Likewise, the differentiation between comments on social marketing and happiness offers scientific evidence of the most valued advantages in each cluster. Specifically, the advantages grouped into the following dimensions are working conditions, company image, and social relations. DISCUSSION: This research contributes to happiness management theories by empirically demonstrating how positive work environments enhance productivity, loyalty, and creativity. These insights show how leadership quality, work-life balance, and recognition contribute to workplace happiness, enhancing productivity, loyalty, and creativity. Such feedback aids job seekers in making informed decisions, helps companies improve practices and attract talent, and provides researchers with valuable data on employment trends and corporate culture's effect on employee well-being.

Ghosts in the labour market: perceived health implications of informal labour in Australia.

Employment conditions are important social and commercial determinants of health. Informal employment-also known as 'cash-in-hand' and 'undeclared' work-is a discrete employment condition that has salience around the world. Fuelled by neoliberal ideology, informal employment has become increasingly common in high-income countries. Public health research concerning the health of informal workers comes largely from low- and middle-income countries, where the phenomenon is more visible. There has been little research on the health effects of informal employment in high-income countries including Australia. Twenty-nine workers aged 18 years and older, who were undertaking informal work activities, were recruited using social media and an online marketplace in Tarndanya (Adelaide-Kaurna Country), Australia. Qualitative narrative data, demographic profiles, and physical and mental health scores were collected. Most informal workers reported unfair and indecent employment conditions including job insecurity, low income, coercion, and lack of respect and dignity at work, and were often exposed to unsafe and unhealthy work environments. Workplace injuries and exposure to occupational hazards were common; and Physical and Mental Component Scores were poorer among informal workers when compared to the population of South Australia as a whole. With informal employment in Australia described as part of a 'significant, pervasive, damaging and growing' problem, there is a need for a health promotion lens over industrial relations policies in the interest of creating equitable access to fair and decent work.

Impact of eliminating retirement earnings test on labor supply and pension benefit claims.

This study explores the hypothetical elimination of Japan's retirement earnings test (ET) for public pensions, focusing on its implications for older workers' labor supply and pension-claiming behaviors. The ET currently reduces public pension benefits for individuals aged 65 and older if their earnings exceed specified thresholds, potentially discouraging employment in this demographic. Notably, the Japanese ET influences both immediate and future pension benefits, thus diminishing current payouts for working pensioners and foregoing beneficial actuarial adjustments-adjustments based on actuarial calculations that would otherwise increase future benefits to account for delayed pension claims. This dual impact may discourage the labor supply and influence pension-claiming behavior among older workers. Through a survey-based experiment with male workers aged 40-59 years expected to face the ET upon retirement, we assess three reform scenarios as the first study in the literature: (1) eliminating future benefit reductions through actuarial adjustments, thereby enhancing the value of deferred pension claims; (2) removing immediate benefit suspensions to increase current pension payments directly; and (3) a comprehensive reform combining both approaches. Our findings reveal that eliminating reductions through actuarial adjustments increases the intensive margin (labor hours and income) and encourages delayed pension claims. Conversely, removing immediate benefit suspensions influences both the extensive margin (decision to work) and the intensive margin but leads to earlier pension claims. By highlighting the importance of differentiating between immediate and future benefit components in designing ET reforms, this study demonstrates their significant impact on labor supply and pension-claiming decisions.

National income accounting attributes and economic welfare. Evidence from Pakistan.

Economic welfare is essential in the modern economy since it directly reflects the standard of living, distribution of resources, and general social satisfaction, which influences individual and social well-being. This study aims to explore the relationship between national income accounting different attributes and the economic welfare in Pakistan. However, this study used data from 1950 to 2022, and data was downloaded from the World Bank data portal. Regression analysis is used to investigate the relationship between them and is very effective in measuring the relationship between endogenous and exogenous variables. Moreover, generalized methods of movement (GMM) are used as the robustness of the regression. Our results show that foreign direct investment outflow, Gross domestic product growth rate, GDP per capita, higher Interest, market capitalization, and population growth have a significant negative on the unemployment rate, indicating the rise in these factors leads to a decrease in the employment rate in Pakistan. Trade and savings have a significant positive impact on the unemployment rate, indicating the rise in these factors leads to an increase in the unemployment rate for various reasons. Moreover, all the factors of national income accounting have a significant positive relationship with life expectancy, indicating that an increase in these factors leads to an increase in economic welfare and life expectancy due to better health facilities, many resources, and correct economic policies. However, foreign direct investment, inflation rate, lending interest rate, and population growth have significant positive effects on age dependency, indicating these factors increase the age dependency. Moreover, GDP growth and GDP per capita negatively impact age dependency. Similarly, all the national income accounting factors have a significant negative relationship with legal rights that leads to decreased legal rights. Moreover, due to better health facilities and health planning, there is a negative significant relationship between national income accounting attributes and motility rate among children. Our study advocated the implications for the policymakers and the government to make policies for the welfare and increase the social factors.

The dilemma between fertility and work: How did the Universal Two-Child policy affect Chinese women's labor income?

Based on China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data from 2012 to 2020, we estimate the effect of the "Universal Two-Child" (UTC) policy on women's employment income in China by the Difference-in-Difference (DID) model. Our results show that the UTC policy leads to an average decrease of 20.86% in women's employment income. Moreover, we reveal the mediation effect in the impact of the UTC policy on women's income and find that the UTC policy leads to a decrease in women's income by reducing their working hours and hourly wages. Furthermore, we find that the negative impacts of the UTC policy on women's employment income are greater among women under 35 years old and those without a bachelor's degree.

'Gout was like the boss'. A qualitative study exploring the impact of gout on employment.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has identified that gout impacts various domains of daily life. However, there have been no qualitative studies focusing on employment. This study aimed to understand the impact of gout on employment. METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted in Spain and Aotearoa/New Zealand, in people with gout (according to the 2015 American College of Rheumatology/European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology criteria) who had experienced a gout flare during their employment. The interviews were guided by questions exploring the impact on employment, job changes, disclosure and co-workers' reactions. Data were analysed thematically. RESULTS: Eighteen participants were interviewed (89% male, mean age 52.9 years). Six themes were identified. The characteristics of the disease (pain intensity, tophi and joints affected) and the job itself (including physical job requirement and workplace flexibility) determined the experience of working with gout. The experiences were divided into physical (from total incapacity to working despite pain), emotional (feeling responsible, embarrassment, guilt and depression) and social (including disclosure responses and financial impact). Gout management strategies including rapid gout flare management and urate-lowering therapy reduced the number of flares and the intensity of pain, and allowed work attendance and participation. CONCLUSION: Both gout and work characteristics influence the employment experience for people with gout. Effective management of gout led to improved work experiences in all its domains.

Employment status and depressive symptoms in taiwanese older adults: an 11-year prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Taiwan became an aged society in March 2018, and it is expected to become a super-aged society by 2025. The trend of increasing proportions of older adults continuing to work is inevitable. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of employment on the mental health of older adults. Therefore, we longitudinally explored the relationship between employment status and depressive symptoms in Taiwanese older adults. METHODS: The study included 5,131 individuals aged 50 and above, of which 55.6% were men, who had participated in the national-wide Taiwan Longitudinal Study of Aging in 1996, 1999, 2003, and 2007. Of them, 1,091 older adults had completed all four surveys. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression scale; the total score on this scale ranges from 0 to 30. Employment status was assessed during each survey wave. Logistic regression was performed using a cross-sectional design. The effects of unemployment on depressive symptoms were analyzed using a generalized estimating equation model with a repeated measures design. RESULTS: In each survey wave, employed older adults exhibited better mental health than did unemployed ones. After adjustments for potential confounders, unemployment was found to exert a significant adverse effect on depressive symptoms. The repeated measures analysis revealed that employment protected against depressive symptoms, as noted in the subsequent surveys conducted after 3 to 4 years (aOR [95% CI] = 0.679 [0.465-0.989]). CONCLUSION: Employment may reduce the risk of depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan.

The interplay between maternal employment dynamics and trends in breastfeeding practices over the past decade.

BACKGROUND: Working mothers are in a situation where they have to manage both their job and maternal roles simultaneously. We aim to show the relationship between mothers' breastfeeding behavior and working status, as well as the effect of their working conditions on the continuation of breastfeeding. METHODS: This study examined 3557 (weighted 3490) child-mother pairs from Turkey's Demographic Health Survey data in 2008, 2013, and 2018 with a complex sample multiple logistic regression analysis to explore the relationship between breastfeeding and maternal employment. RESULTS: In our study, 35.5% of the mothers had never worked, 18.6% were still working, and 45.9% had worked in the past but were not currently working. When breastfeeding percentages were examined based on maternal working status, mothers who worked in 2008 had significantly lower breastfeeding percentages than those who had never worked or had worked previously but not currently. In both 2013 and 2018, after legal regulations, maternal employment didn't affect breastfeeding. After adjusting for confounding factors, maternal employment in the industry sector had lower breastfeeding percentages [AOR:0.06 (95% CI: 0.01-0.48)] than those working in agriculture. CONCLUSION: It seems that adhering to legal regulations such as paid maternity leave and lactation leave can promote breastfeeding. It is necessary to raise awareness of mothers working in the industry about the continuation of breastfeeding and to monitor their legal rights.

Practicable strategies parents can apply in their daily routine to successfully implement the 50/50-split-model of paid work, childcare, and housework: a qualitative content analysis.

BACKGROUND: Many young couples are planning to share paid work, childcare, and housework equally between each other. But implementing such a 50/50-split-model is difficult and parents often return to traditional gender role distributions after the birth of a child. This return has potential negative effects on mental health, physical health, and relationship satisfaction. Therefore, this study aims to find practicable strategies on a behavioral-level which new parents can apply in their daily routine to successfully implement the 50/50-split-model if they wish to do so. METHODS: This qualitative study, DREAMTALK, is part of the multi-method, prospective Dresden Study on Parenting, Work, and Mental Health (DREAM). For DREAMTALK, N = 25 parents implementing a 50/50-split-model were selected based on quantitative data regarding time use, which participants had provided in questionnaires. In DREAMTALK, problem-centered interviews were conducted with the selected sample at 17 months postpartum. Those were analyzed via qualitative content analysis, which is systematic, rule-guided, and based on the criteria of validity and reliability. RESULTS: The qualitative content analysis revealed a catalog of 38 practicable strategies to manage daily routine, which can help parents to successfully implement a 50/50-split-model. Individual participants used 23 success strategies on average. Examples include having a regular coordination appointment with the other parent, planning foresightedly, flexibility, reducing cleaning, optimization of routes, or moderate split-shift parenting. Some of these strategies seem opposing, e.g., planning foresightedly, and at the same time, meeting unpredicted changes with flexibility. Those seemingly opposing strategies were well balanced by the participants, which was an additional strategy. CONCLUSIONS: Parents can use the success strategies relatively independently of external circumstances. This behavioral perspective extends prior theories, which have focused on explaining unequal gender role distributions with external circumstances. A behavioral perspective can be a gateway to assist more parents to pioneer in implementing the 50/50-split-model, which might in turn lead to a healthier and more satisfied public population.

The dual path effect mechanism study of digital-HRM on employee innovative performance and cyberloafing.

In recent years, an increasing number of companies have begun implementing digital-HRM. However, much of the existing research primarily discusses digital-HRM from a "thing" perspective or explores its consequences at the organizational level. There has been limited research focusing on individual employees, particularly on how digital-HRM impacts their psychological states and performance. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, this study examines the relationship between digital-HRM and employee innovative performance, as well as cyberloafing. We conducted a time-lagged study involving 487 employees across various industries in China and employed partial least squares path modeling. The results suggest that digital-HRM enhances employee innovative performance by increasing the sense of work gain, while it reduces cyberloafing by decreasing relative deprivation. Perceived ease of technology use was found to positively moderate these relationships. By rigorously investigating the critical psychological mechanisms of the sense of work gain and relative deprivation, and the essential boundary condition of perceived ease of technology use, this study aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework that deepens our understanding of how digital-HRM, as an emerging job resource in the digital era, influences employee behavior. Adopting a human-centered approach, the research theoretically extends the study of digital-HRM's impact at the individual level and finds that digital-HRM influences employee performance in a mutually beneficial manner. These findings provide practical insights for organizations to actively implement digital-HRM and maximize its benefits.

Why Opportunities for Tenure Matter for Minoritized Faculty in Academic Medicine.

Academic medicine continues to characterize the experiences of Black and other minoritized faculty in medicine to enhance their careers and promote their advancement. An issue of discussion is tenure and its role in the advancement and retention of this group. Tenure is a sign of national presence, command of an area of study, and can demonstrate support from the institution in terms of permanent employment, eligibility to apply for awards, sit or vote on certain committees or qualify for certain leadership opportunities. Anecdotally there have been reports that tenure is a thing of the past that has lost relevance prompting some to end tenure in their institutions. Reasons for this are complex, however the literature does not include minoritized faculty as a reason for the need to revise or eliminate tenure and tenure earning tracks. The authors discuss 3 reasons why Black and other minoritized faculty should be afforded the opportunity to achieve permanent status in their academic health centers. They include histories of being denied freedom, having information concealed or being giving false information, and being denied permanent academic employment status.

Affirmative action and employment equity in the professions: Backlash fueled by individualism and meritocracy.

In the 40 years since federal employment equity initiatives were launched in Canada, they have faced persistent backlash. This backlash is grounded in and fueled by conceptualizations of justice and equality that are rooted in ideologies of individualism and meritocracy. Here we draw on 140 qualitative interviews with members of six professions from across Canada, who self-identify as Indigenous, Black or racialized, ethnic minority, disabled, 2SLGBTQ+, and/or from working-class origins, to explore tensions between concepts of justice grounded in group-based oppressions and those grounded in individual egalitarianism. Though affirmative action and employment equity opened up opportunities, people were still left to fight for individual rights. This push to individualism was intensified by persistent hostile misperceptions that people are less qualified and in receipt of 'unfair advantages.' Through discursive misdirection, potential for transformative institutional change is undermined by liberal discourses of individualism and meritocracy.

Au cours des 40 années depuis le lancement des initiatives fédérales d'équité en matière d'emploi au Canada, celles­ci ont été confrontées à des réactions négatives persistantes. Cette réaction est fondée et alimentée par des conceptualisations de la justice et de l'égalité enracinées dans des idéologies d'individualisme et de méritocratie. Nous nous appuyons ici sur 140 entretiens qualitatifs avec des membres de six professions à travers le Canada, qui s'identifient comme autochtones, noirs ou racialisés, membres de minorités ethniques, handicapés, 2SLGBTQ+ et/ou issus de la classe ouvrière, pour explorer les tensions entre les concepts de justice fondés sur les oppressions de groupe et ceux fondés sur l'égalitarisme individuel. Bien que l'action positive et l'équité en matière d'emploi aient ouvert des perspectives, les gens devaient encore se battre pour leurs droits individuels. Cette poussée vers l'individualisme a été intensifiée par des perceptions hostiles persistantes selon lesquelles les personnes sont moins qualifiées et bénéficient d'« avantages injustes ¼. Les discours libéraux sur l'individualisme et la méritocratie sapent le potentiel de changement institutionnel transformateur par une mauvaise orientation discursive.

A longitudinal study on impact of emergency cash transfer payments during the COVID pandemic on coping among Australian young adults.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused financial hardship and psychological distress among young Australians. This study investigates whether the Australian Government's emergency cash transfer payments-specifically welfare expansion for those unemployed prior to the pandemic (known in Australia as the Coronavirus Supplement) and JobKeeper (cash support for those with reduced or stopped employment due to the pandemic)-were associated with individual's level of coping during the coronavirus pandemic among those with and without mental disorders (including anxiety, depression, ADHD and autism). The sample included 902 young adults who participated in all of the last three waves (8, 9C1, 9C2) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), a nationally representative cohort study. Modified Poisson regression models were used to assess the impact of emergency cash transfer payments on 18-22-year-old's self-rated coping level, stratifying the analysis by those with and without mental disorders. All models were adjusted for gender, employment, location, family cohesion, history of smoking, alcohol intake, and COVID-19 test result. Of the 902-person sample analysed, 41.5% (n = 374) reported high levels of coping, 18.9% (n = 171) reported mental disorders, 40.3% (n = 364) received the Coronavirus Supplement and 16.4% (n = 148) received JobKeeper payments. Analysing the total sample demonstrated that participants who received the JobKeeper payment were more likely to have a higher level of coping compared to those who did not receive the JobKeeper payment. Stratified analyses demonstrated that those with pre-existing mental disorder obtained significant benefit from the JobKeeper payment on their level of coping, compared to those who did not receive JobKeeper. In contrast, receipt of the Coronavirus Supplement was not significantly associated with higher level of coping. Among those with no mental health disorder, neither the Coronavirus Supplement nor JobKeeper had a statistically significant impact on level of coping. These findings suggest the positive impacts of cash transfers on level of coping during the pandemic were limited to those with a pre-existing mental disorder who received JobKeeper.

'It depends on where you were born here in the North East, there's not really many job opportunities compared to in the South': young people's perspectives on a North-South health divide and its drivers in England, UK.

BACKGROUND: Improving the public's understanding of how regional and socioeconomic inequalities create and perpetuate inequalities in health, is argued to be necessary for building support for policies geared towards creating a more equal society. However, research exploring public perceptions of health inequalities, and how they are generated, is limited. This is particularly so for young people. Our study sought to explore young people's lived experiences and understandings of health inequalities. METHODS: We carried out focus group discussions (n = 18) with 42 young people, aged 13-21, recruited from six youth organisations in England in 2021. The organisations were located in areas of high deprivation in South Yorkshire, the North East and London. Young people from each organisation took part in three interlinked focus group discussions designed to explore their (i) perceptions of factors impacting their health in their local area, (ii) understandings of health inequalities and (iii) priorities for change. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most discussions took place online (n = 15). However, with one group in the North East, we carried out discussions face-to-face (n = 3). Data were analysed thematically and we used NVivo-12 software to facilitate data management. RESULTS: Young people from all groups demonstrated an awareness of a North-South divide in England, UK. They described how disparities in local economies and employment landscapes between the North and the South led to tangible differences in everyday living and working conditions. They clearly articulated how these differences ultimately led to inequalities in people's health and wellbeing, such as linking poverty and employment precarity to chronic stress. Young people did not believe these inequalities were inevitable. They described the Conservative government as prioritising the South and thus perpetuating inequalities through uneven investment. CONCLUSIONS: Our study affords important insights into young people's perceptions of how wider determinants can help explain the North-South health divide in England. It demonstrates young people's contextualised understandings of the interplay between spatial, social and health inequalities. Our findings support calls for pro-equity policies to address the structural causes of regional divides in health. Further research, engaging young people in deliberative policy analysis, could build on this work.

Slow walking speed and health-related exit from employment among older workers over 5 years of follow-up: evidence from the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: With demographic changes, there is increasing demand for individuals and governments to lengthen working lives. Jobs that are very physically demanding are likely to be more difficult to sustain at older ages. If workers at risk of mismatch of demand and capability could be identified early, there would be opportunities for intervention for health or lifestyle and/or re-training or redeployment. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether self-reported walking speed (a good measure of function in elderly people) predicted health-related job loss (HRJL) longitudinally over 5 years of follow-up among middle-aged workers. DESIGN: Data came from the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) prospective cohort study of middle-aged people (aged 50-64 years) in UK. SETTING: General population survey (sampling frame was 24 General Practice registers). PARTICIPANTS: The cohort included 8134 people recruited in 2013-2014. For the current analyses, 5217 people who ever worked and completed at least one follow-up questionnaire were eligible. PRIMARY OUTCOME: Exit from employment mainly or partly for health reasons (HRJL). RESULTS: At baseline, very slow walking speed was associated with: obesity, physical inactivity, smoking (men), financial hardship, lower educational attainment and not being in professional occupations. In total, 527 people (10%) reported at least one HRJL during follow-up. After adjustment, the HR for HRJL among men with very slow walking-speed was 4.32, 95% CI 2.72 to 6.87 and among women was 4.47, 95% CI 3.04 to 6.57. After further adjustment for 'difficulty coping with physical demands at work', hazards remained doubled in men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported walking speed could help identify older workers who are at increased risk of HRJL. This could provide opportunities for intervention through optimising health and lifestyle, restricting physical workload, retraining or redeployment. Early appropriate intervention could enable longer working lives and promote healthier, more equal ageing.

Cognitive abilities, insurance decisions, and labor supply behavior: evidence from rural China.

Introduction: How cognitive abilities affect financial and economic decision is an important issue that has attracted the attention of economics. Method: This paper uses the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2010, 2014, and 2018 survey data to empirically test the impact of cognitive skills on the insurance participation decisions in rural China. Results and discussion: The results show that higher word ability is correlated to higher social health insurance participation and both word and math ability leads to higher social pension participation. Mechanism analysis reveals that individuals with higher cognitive skills are more likely to be affected by peers in insurance decision, and higher cognitive skills increase personal income that enables them to enroll in the social insurance. Further investigation of labor supply behavior suggests that while cognitive skills positively affect non-agricultural labor participation, cognitive skills amplify the negative effect of social security on labor supply.