Aim
Extending working life is considered as an important initiative to respond to the population aging and pension payment dilemma. This study aimed to investigate whether work after retirement is ...related to improved health‐related quality of life.
Methods
We used two waves of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2011 and 2018. Work after retirement was ascertained based on self‐reported retirement and work status, and health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) was measured with the three‐level EuroQol five‐dimensions. The impact of work after retirement on HRQOL was analyzed using the propensity score matching with difference‐in‐difference approach.
Results
A total of 1043 retirees were included. The results showed that work after retirement was associated with significant improvement in HRQOL among retirees (β = 0.072, P < 0.001). Heterogeneity analyses did not show specificity on sex (P for sex interaction >0.05), but older‐aged retirees seemed more sensitive to the benefits of work after retirement on HRQOL than their younger‐aged counterparts (≥65 years: β = 0.167, P < 0.001 vs <65 years: β = −0.047, P > 0.05; P for age interaction = 0.010).
Conclusions
Work after retirement shows a positive impact on HRQOL among community‐dwelling adults in China. Policy‐makers should take the health of retirees into account when implementing policies related to delayed retirement, and reduce health inequity. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 722–729.
Work after retirement is associated with improved health‐related quality of life. The health effect should be considered when designing delayed retirement policies. Precise policies toward characteristically different retirees are recommended.
Exploiting the variation in education induced by a reform that compelled individuals to obtain additional schooling in Turkey, and using administrative unemployment insurance (UI) records, we show ...that high‐educated unemployed workers, compared to their low‐educated counterparts, use unemployment benefits longer, and they are less likely to find employment before their benefit periods expire. This suggests education increases one's selectiveness over jobs. We also show benefit generosity impacts the high‐ versus low‐educated differentially. Extended benefits increase low‐educated workers' probability of finding employment more than the high‐educated. Our findings highlight the importance of considering worker attributes when designing the UI system.
There is little evidence on whether becoming re-employed in poor quality work is better for health and well-being than remaining unemployed. We examined associations of job transition with health and ...chronic stress-related biomarkers among a population-representative cohort of unemployed British adults.
A prospective cohort of 1116 eligible participants aged 35 to 75 years, who were unemployed at wave 1 (2009/10) of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, were followed up at waves 2 (2010/11) and 3 (2011/12) for allostatic load biomarkers and self-reported health. Negative binomial and multiple regression models estimated the association between job adversity and these outcomes.
Compared with adults who remained unemployed, formerly unemployed adults who transitioned into poor quality jobs had higher levels of overall allostatic load (0.51, 0.32-0.71), log HbA1c (0.06, <0.001-0.12), log triglycerides (0.39, 0.22-0.56), log C-reactive protein (0.45, 0.16-0.75), log fibrinogen (0.09, 0.01-0.17) and total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ratio (1.38, 0.88-1.88). Moreover, physically healthier respondents at wave 1 were more likely to transition into good quality and poor quality jobs after 1 year than those who remained unemployed.
Formerly unemployed adults who transitioned into poor quality work had greater adverse levels of biomarkers compared with their peers who remained unemployed. The selection of healthier unemployed adults into these poor quality or stressful jobs was unlikely to explain their elevated levels of chronic stress-related biomarkers. Job quality cannot be disregarded from the employment success of the unemployed, and may have important implications for their health and well-being.
Recently, Fugate et al. Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J., & Ashforth, B. E. (2004). Employability: A psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65(1), 14 ...defined employability as a psycho-social construct comprised of three dimensions: (i) adaptability; (ii) career identity; and (iii) human and social capital. The aim of the current paper was to empirically test Fugate et al.’s model in a sample of 416 unemployed Australians (
n
=
126 for longitudinal sample). Specifically, this research explored employability in relation to three aspects of unemployment: (1) self-esteem during unemployment; (2) job search during unemployment; and (3) re-employment (at a 6-month follow-up). Overall, the results of this longitudinal study provide broad support for the psycho-social construct of employability and demonstrate its applicability to the unemployment context.
There is little empirical research on the effect of working after retirement on the mental health of the older adults in China. To fill this gap in the literature, this study examines the effects of ...working after retirement on the mental health of the older adults using data from the China Family Panel Studies. We employed the methods of ordinary least squares, ordered logit, and propensity score matching–difference in differences (PSM–DID). Results show that working after retirement is negatively related to mental health of the older adults in China. The deterioration effect of post-retirement work mainly impacts those aged over 60 years, women, and those with lower education background, urban household registration, higher pension, and higher social status. Working after retirement is negatively related to mental health through the mediating effects of deteriorating interpersonal relationships and lower positive attitude. It is necessary to consider mental health effects and their population differences to evaluate the impact and improve the quality of policies of active aging.
This 3-wave, 12-month longitudinal study investigated how protean career orientation (PCO) influences unemployed people's self-esteem, job search activity, employment perceived job improvement and ...perceived career growth over time. Panel data analysis with a sample of 186 people revealed that PCO was significantly associated with increased self-esteem, job search activity and reemployment. The effect of self-esteem on job search activity was mediated by PCO. PCO was significantly associated with job improvement and career growth once reemployed and the relationship between PCO and career growth was mediated by job improvement. PCO declined once participants become reemployed. Implications for how career counselors can develop career transitions programs that facilitate a PCO are presented.
•Longitudinal test of protean career attitude (PCA) during unemployment (N=186)•Panel analysis of changes from unemployment and reemployment•PCA was significantly associated with increased self-esteem and job search activity.•PCA significantly predicted reemployment.•PCA decreased upon reemployment demonstrating a dynamic nature.
•We investigate the welfare effects of extending unemployment benefits by comparing the search effort responses to income transfers when employed (i.e. re-employment bonus) and unemployed (i.e. ...extended benefits).•The provision of re-employment bonus increases job-finding hazards and results in the positive fiscal externality.•Extending unemployment benefits reduces the rate of unemployment exit and generates the negative fiscal externality.•The welfare gain from benefit extension is larger than its welfare cost by more than 30%.
This paper investigates the welfare effects of extending unemployment benefits by comparing the search effort responses to income transfers when employed (i.e. re-employment bonus) and unemployed (i.e. extended benefits). Specifically, we use administrative data on the universe of unemployment spells in Taiwan from 2001 to 2011 and evaluate effects of providing a re-employment bonus and extending unemployment benefits. Our results suggest that the provision of re-employment bonus increases job-finding hazards and results in the positive fiscal externality. The behavioral costs per New Taiwanese Dollar (NTD) of initial spending on bonuses is -0.61. In contrast, extending unemployment benefits reduces the rate of unemployment exit and generates the negative fiscal externality. We integrate the estimated policy effects with a search model with liquidity constraints to identify the value of extending unemployment benefits captured by the marginal rate of substitution (MRS) between consumption when unemployed and employed. We find that the estimated MRS of extending benefits is around 1.5 to 2.5 — the marginal value of transfers when unemployed is about two times larger than that when employed. Finally, the marginal value of public fund for extending UI benefits is between 1.3 and 2, suggesting the welfare gain from benefit extension is larger than its welfare cost by more than 30%.
•We study how the potential duration of unemployment benefits affects early job search behavior.•For identification, we exploit an unexpected reform in the German UI scheme.•One additional month of ...potential benefits reduces application provision by 10%.•The benefit extension further reduces the chance of (early) job finding.•A back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals substantial returns to early search effort.
This paper studies how the potential duration of unemployment benefits affects early job search behavior and re-employment outcomes. We exploit an unexpected reform of the German unemployment insurance (UI) scheme in 2008, which increased the potential benefit duration from 12 to 15 months for benefit recipients of age 50 to 54. Based on detailed survey data and a difference-in-differences design, we estimate that one additional month of potential benefits reduces early job applications by around 10%. Using social security data, we further find that the extension of benefits increases the average nonemployment duration of individuals entering UI after the reform. Among individuals who got treated at later stages of their unemployment spell, the increased UI coverage does not appear to come at the cost of longer nonemployment. A cautious back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals substantial job finding returns to early search effort.
Objectives We examined whether sickness absence during participation in a state subsidized re-employment program among long-term unemployed people was associated with subsequent labor market ...attachment. Methods We linked 18 944 long-term unemployed participants (aged 18-60 years) of a six-month subsidized re-employment program in Finland to their records of sickness absence during the program and labor market status after the program. We used the latent class growth model to identify labor market attachment trajectories over a six-year follow-up period and multinomial logistic regression to investigate the association between sickness absence and labor market attachment trajectories. Results We identified four labor market attachment trajectories: "strengthening", (77%), "delayed" (6%), "leavers" (10%), and "non-attached" (7%). Sickness absence was associated with an increased risk of belonging to the leavers and non-attached trajectories. Having >30 days of sickness absence during the six-month re-employment program increased the risk for belonging to the future non-attached trajectory in all age groups, but in particular for those aged 30-44 odds ratio (OR) 7.35, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.85-11.14 and 18-29 years (OR 5.38, 95%CI 3.76-7.69). At these ages, having fewer than 30 days sickness absences was also associated with an elevated risk of belonging to the non-attached trajectory, while this risk was lower for those aged 45-60. Conclusions Sickness absence during participation in a subsidized re-employment program increased the risk for poor labor market attachment during the subsequent six years. The risk was particularly high among younger participants with >30 days of sickness absence.