Can workplace intervention prolong work life of older workers? A quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate the impact of a workplace senior program intervention on early exit from labor market and on the disability retirement among older employees and work-related physical factors associated with it. METHODS: A total of 259 individuals aged 55 + years participated in the study (107 in intervention and 152 were controls). A questionnaire survey was conducted among Finnish food industry employees between 2003 and 2009 and the intervention "senior program" was provided between 2004 and 2009. The type of pension for the respondents who had retired by 2019 was obtained and dichotomized as statutory vs. early labor market exit. Disability pension was investigated as a separate outcome. Information on work-related factors was obtained from the survey. Cox regression analysis was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with their 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Fifty-one employees had early labor market exit. Of them, 70% (n = 36) were control participants. Employees in the senior program worked for longer years (mean years 7.4, 95% CI 6.4-8.1) compared to the control (6.6, 95% CI 6.3-7.5). Sixty percent lower risk of early labor market exit (HR 0.40, 95% CI 0.19-0.84) and disability pension was found among employees in the senior program compared to the control group. Good work ability had a 94% lower risk (0.06, 95% CI 0.01-0.29) of early labor market exit and 85% lower risk (0.15, 95% CI 0.03-0.73) of disability pension compared to poor work ability. Employees with musculoskeletal pain had 4 times higher risk of disability pension compared to those without musculoskeletal pain. CONCLUSIONS: A workplace senior program intervention prolonged work life and had positive effect on reducing disability pension among older industrial workers.

Educational inequalities in employment of Finns aged 60-68 in 2006-2018.

The aim of this study was to explore the employment of 60-68-year-old men and women by educational level over the period 2006-2018 and the magnitude of educational inequalities in employment. We used individual-level register data from Statistics Finland including all Finns aged 60-68 over a period of 13 years. In addition to calculating employment rates for men and women by educational levels, we estimated the relative index of inequality (RII) and slope index of inequality (SII) to measure the magnitude of relative and absolute educational inequalities in employment. The results show that the employment rates increased in all educational levels over the period 2006-2018. Relative educational inequalities in employment remained stable mainly among the 63-65-year-olds but decreased among the 60-62-year-olds and the 66-68-year-olds. However, absolute educational inequalities in employment increased in all age groups for both men and women.

Health shocks and couples' labor market participation: A turning point or stuck in the trajectory?

A health shock can have lasting consequences for the employment of not only the individuals experiencing it, but also their spouses. In this article, we complement the individual approach to the impact of health shocks with a dyadic perspective and show how employment opportunities and restrictions within couples are interdependent in the face of severe illness. We investigate whether the association between male spouses' health shocks and couples' employment trajectories depends on household specialization and both spouses' education. Multichannel sequence analysis is applied to retrospective life-course data from the Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for couples with health shocks and their matched controls (N = 1022). By identifying typical employment trajectories, we find that health shocks are negatively associated with trajectories where both spouses continue in full-time employment and positively with trajectories where the man retires while the woman continues working and where both spouses retire simultaneously. Couples' trajectories differ according to the spouses' combined education levels. Findings suggest that health shocks may exacerbate economic inequalities within and between couples.