Creating a knowledge base for future labour market challenges
Summary and overall aim
The transition from work into retirement is a pressing issue in the public discourse, in policy and in research. What is often being overlooked, however, is that, in many countries, the past two decades have brought forward significant changes in retirement patterns and schemes, which means that retirement today is no clear-cut “oneoff” event, but characterised by temporal and conceptual diversity. In other words: Retirement is becoming fragmented. The objective of this fast-track project was to define research needs with regard to the employment participation at higher working age by critically reviewing research findings, approaches and methodologies.
In an overall assessment of the findings, surprisingly often, similar conclusions for research are drawn across domains and countries. These research needs fall into three priority areas to advance research on the employment participation
of older workers:
- Conceptual gap: Bridging the lack of a broad view
A broad view of retirement requires a conceptual framework, which locates retirement within the context of different determinants on the micro, meso and macro level and allows for a life course perspective. For the advancement of research on the employment participation of older workers, the working group recommends increased multifactorial thinking, more multilevel approaches, the differentiated consideration of exit routes, the consideration of population subgroups and their distinct characteristics in terms of gender, social or occupational status, migration/ethnicity or age, and a general openness as to the selection and combination of methodological approaches. - Regional gap: Levelling of uneven cross-national coverage of research
Research on employment participation of older workers was found to be distributed very unevenly across the review countries. - Filling the thematic gaps in retirement research
There are a number of thematic gaps, which the working group recommends to close by adopting a differentiated view in retirement research and by considering: the role of health in the context of retirement, potential domestic and household factors, new work exposures like the increased use of technology or higher flexibility in work settings and their possible impact on retirement, the role of older women in retirement, the relation between migration and retirement, social position, the employers’ perspective; the opportunities for organisational intervention, and the societal costs and gains of policy changes.
Forward-looking policy and governance relies on detailed and comprehensive evidence and requires, hence, the closing of this important research gap at the intersection of social policy and labour market policy.
Project details
Understanding employment participation of older workers is a fast track project.
Project duration
September 2014 – Februrary 2015 (finished)
Consortium
Austria
- Jörg Flecker, University of Vienna, Institute of Sociology, Vienna
- Ingrid Mairhuber, FORBA, Vienna
- Elisabeth Prammer, FORBA, Vienna
- Brigitte Steinbauer, University of Vienna, Institute of Sociology, Vienna
- Ulrike Waginger, University of Vienna, Institute of Sociology, Vienna
Belgium
- Alain Jousten, University of Liège, Tax Institute and HEC Management School, Liège
- Lina Salanauskaite, University of Liège, HEC Management School, Liège
Canada
- Alain Bélanger, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Urbanisation Culture Société, Montréal
- Yves Carrière, University of Montréal , Department of Demography, Montréal , Canada
- Patrick Sabourin, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Urbanisation Culture Société, Montréal
Denmark
- Otto Melchior Poulsen, National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen
- Reiner Rugulies, National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen
Finland
- Raija Gould, Finnish Centre for Pensions, Helsinki
- Mikko Härmä, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki
- Lea Henriksson, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki
- Päivi Husman, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki
- Susan Kuivalainen, Finnish Centre for Pensions, Helsinki
- Satu Nivalainen, Finnish Centre for Pensions, Helsinki
- Jorma Seitsamo, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki
- Esa-Pekka Takala, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki
Germany
- Wenke Apt, VDI/VDE-IT, Berlin
- Hermann Burr, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, BAuA, Berlin
- Daniela Borchart, University of Wuppertal, Institute for Safety Technology, Wuppertal
- Melanie Ebener, University of Wuppertal, Institute for Safety Technology, Wuppertal
- Alba Fishta, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, BAuA, Berlin
- Hans Martin Hasselhorn, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, BAuA, Berlin
- Anne Pohrt, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, BAuA, Berlin
- Natalie Riedel, University of Wuppertal, Institute for Safety Technology, Wuppertal
Netherlands
- Paulien Bongers, TNO, Delft
- Dagmar Beudeker, TNO, Delft
- Astrid de Wind, TNO, Delft
- Jaap Oude Mulders, Utrecht University, School of Economics, Utrecht
- Joop Schippers, Utrecht University, School of Economics, Utrecht
- Swenneke van den Heuvel, TNO, Delft
Norway
- Anne Inga Hilsen, Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, Oslo
- Tove Midtsundstad, Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, Oslo
Poland
- Dorota Żołnierczyk-Zreda, CIOP-PIB, Warsaw
Sweden
- Maria Albin, Lund University, Faculty of Medicine, Lund
- Theo Bodin, Lund University, Faculty of Medicine, Lund
- Eskil Wadensjö, Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm
United Kingdom
- David Lain, University of Brighton, Business School, Brighton
- Stephen McNair, National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, Leicester
- Peter John Nolan, University of Leeds, Business School, Leeds
- Gunjan Shukla, University of Bath, Bath
- Mariska van der Horst, University of Kent, Kent
- Sarah Vickerstaff, University of Kent, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, Kent