Can Working Lives be Extended? Problems and Prospects for Older Workers

Transcription

1 Can Working Lives be Extended? Problems and Prospects for Older Workers Chris Phillipson SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES MANCHESTER INSTITUTE FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH INTO AGEING Visiting Fellow, ANU, Centre for Excellence in Population Ageing Research THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

2 AREAS FOR DISCUSSION Changes to work-ending Factors driving current debates on work & retirement How can a fuller or extended working life be achieved? Policy interventions

3 RE-BALANCING WORK & RETIREMENT THROUGH EXTENDING WORKING LIFE? Extension for who? Extension for how long? Extension by what means? Extension for what purpose? Extension in whose interests?

4 Major changes to the end of (paid) working life Changes to work-ending: Extended working lives fuller working lives gradual retirement Flexible retirement partial retirement working retirement unretirement Switch from welfare to employment pathways

5 Debate on work & retirement driven by changes in life expectancy/time in retirement Concern about doubling of adult time in retirement: c. 17 years in 1950; 30 years by 2000s (UK Pensions Commission, Turner, 2004) Live Longer, Work Longer (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, 2006) Increases in pension ages underway or planned in majority of OECD countries.

6 Changes to pension age in the UK Progressive increases in State Pension Age (SPA) in the UK: 2020 SPA 66 men and women rising to 67 between Cohort: median retirement age: 64 (men); 60 (women) UK Pension Act (2014): pension age to be reviewed every 6 years (Cridland review underway considering changes in life expectancy, wider changes in society, and help ensure state pension remains sustainable ).

7 Changes in the debate on work and retirement 1950s 1970s Institutionalisation of retirement driven by welfare state, occupational pensions, and full employment: The Triumph of Retirement (Graebner, 1980). 1980s mid-1990s Break-up of retirement driven by economic recession, crisis in manufacturing industries, high unemployment, early exit/retirement (Kohli et al.,1991) Late-1990s onwards: Pressure to compress retirement/extend working life driven by global economic crisis, welfare state retrenchment, debates around inter-generational equity (Phillipson, 2013)

8 % 100 Table 1: Labour Force Participation among men 55-64: Selected Countries ( ) (%) Canada France Germany Sweden UK * Australia Source: OECD Economic Outlook. *Data from 1966 are used here.

9 % Table 2: Labour Force Participation among women aged selected countries ( ) (%) Canada France Germany Sweden UK Australia Source: OECD Economic Outlook.

10 Table 3: Employment at age (%) ( ) (Men) New Zealand United States Australia Canada United Kingdom European Union

11 Table 4: Employment at age (%) ( ) (Women) New Zealand United States Australia 20.0 Canada United Kingdom European Union

12 Figure 1 Changes in work/retirement transition Long work / Short retirement Limited Expectations 1950s/1960s Multiple Pathways Retirement life-styles 1970s/1980s Multiple Transitions Extending working 1990s/2000s

13 EXTENDING or a FULLER WORKING LIFE Shift the debate from extending working life to a fuller working life i.e. good quality/ secure employment should be basis for encouragement for people to say in workforce Fuller may be seen in quantitative terms (lengthening working lives) but qualitative (improving the quality of working life) dimension may be more important

14 Impact of poor quality work Young & Bhaumik (2011) analysing the UK Health and Wellbeing Employee Survey found 36% of people with depression, bad nerves or anxiety believed their condition was caused by work, and 55% believed that work made their symptoms worse. Matthews (2014), in a study of men continuing in work after SPA found those in poor quality work had higher depression scores than those in retirement (after controlling for selection bias) Siegrist & Wahrendorf (2010), using SHARE data, found strong evidence that those experiencing poor working conditions for a significant period of their working life were more likely to report poor health during retirement.

15 HOW CAN A FULLER OR EXTENDED WORKING LIFE BE ACHIEVED? Challenges in four areas: RETIREMENT PREFERENCES EMPLOYER POLICIES HEALTHY/UNHEALTHY WORKING LIVES PRECARIOUS WORKING LIVES

16 EXTENDING WORKING LIFE DO PEOPLE WANT TO WORK LONGER?

17 Table 5: Mean desired retirement ages (men & women) selected European countries: 45 + (Economically Active) MEN WOMEN Holland 63 Holland 62 Germany 62 Germany 61 UK 61 UK 61 Spain 61 Spain 61 Belgium 61 Belgium 60 Greece 60 France 60 France 60 Greece 59 European Social Survey (Hofäcker 2015)

18 Extending working life ARE EMPLOYER POLICIES IN PLACE FOR EXTENDED WORKING?

19 Table 6: Policies applied by employers to retain older personnel (%) (selected European Countries) Denmark France Germany Italy Holland UK Training Plans for older workers Extra Leave Decreased Workload Reduce Work Time Ergonomic Measures Flexible Working Hours N/A N/A (Conen et al Employers Attitudes towards EWL in Europe)

20 % who did some learning Figure 2 % of people reporting doing some learning* by age group (UK) ( )(Formal, Non-formal, Informal) Year Source: NALS

21 % Figure 3: Proportion reporting taking part in formal education or training in the last 12 months (50 plus) All Source: ELSA w1-w5

22 Figure 4: Proportion of men & women receiving workrelated training in the past 12 months (UK) (2012/13) Source: Understanding Society Wave 4

23 Extending working lives Might health issues limit people working?

24 Proportion of population Figure 5: Proportion of those employed by age group with long-term health conditions 50% 45% 40% Three or more long-term health conditions Two long-term health conditions 35% One long-term health condition 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% SPa Age group Source: Labour Force Survey 3 quarter average 2013Q2-Q4

25 Figure 6: Employment rate by main long-term health condition (all aged 50-60/65) No long-term health condition Diabetes Heart, blood pressure or blood circulation problems Chest or breathing problems, asthma, bronchitis Digestive problems Other long-term health conditons Musculoskeletal problems Depression Mental health conditions 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Source: Labour Force Survey 3 quarter average 2013Q2-Q4 Employment rate

26 Extending working life Is employment becoming more precarious?

27 SECURE OR PRECARIOUS LATE WORKING LIVES? Increasing in bridging employment 1 in 4 retirees in Europe (Dingemans et al., 2016) Rise of non-standard working amongst older workers (casual, temporary forms of employment) (Gong & McNamara, 2011; Standing, 2011) 19% of 50 plus in UK self-employed (2014) but projected to rise to c.40% by 2030 (but some reluctant ) 2/3rds of self-employed adults in UK not contributing to a pension (Resolution Foundation, 2014) Long-term impact of automation (Frey & Osborne, 2014; Haldane, 2015; Durrant-Whyte et al., 2015; Hajkowicz et al, 2016)

28 AREAS OF INTERVENTION PENSIONS AND LIFE EXPECTANCY HEALTH WORK LIFELONG EDUCATION/TRAINING

29 Table 7: Life Expectancy at 65 by National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification MALE Change Highest % Lowest % FEMALE Change Highest % Lowest % Highest: Higher Managerial/Professional Lowest: Routine Note: England & Wales ONS, 2015

30 Equalising access to pensions Problem of unequally rising life expectancies and generally rising pension ages leading to Disadvantaged groups contributing an increasing amount to the pension of those with higher life expectancies leading to Debate about varying access to state/age pensions according to profession/occupational sectors (Berkman et al. 2015)

31 HEALTH-RELATED INTERVENTIONS Fit for Work (2015): (England & Wales): provides general health and work advice for people off work for 4 weeks or more; specially targeted at those without access to occupational health service through their employer. Mid-life career reviews with a focus on health issues. Pilot programme esources/mlcr%20final%20report.pdf Interventions to support those with mental health problems key area symptoms of a severity most likely to require treatment are most prevalent among those i.e. young older workers most at risk at peak of careers (Irvine, 2013)

32 WORK INTERVENTIONS Expansion of bridge employment in Europe/North American (paid work combined with a pension) but more likely to be healthier/more educated groups (Dingemans, 2016) Flexible working, shorting working hours, discontinuation of shift working and night working. Right to request flexible working in European countries and Australia but insufficient awareness (CIPD, 2016) (e.g. in SMEs) and may be a route to poor quality jobs (Earl & Taylor, 2016) Sabbatical leave : time out from the labour market for a specific purpose: re-train, caring, travel, health issue (attempts in Denmark & Belgium but now largely abandoned).

33 TRAINING INTERVENTIONS Further training as a legal entitlement for those changing careers or moving into bridging forms of employment More imaginative use of e-learning/distance learning to assist those working from home & those juggling work & caregiving responsibilities Specific obligations placed upon employers to expand training and learning as a precondition for creating part-time and related forms of employment Encouraging a more prominent role for universities and colleges in workforce development

34 Will extending working life damage health and make society more unequal? Raising pension ages may reinforce social inequalities (those with least need most likely to remain in the labour market) (i.e. those with more education and better health). Raising pension ages may reinforce health inequalities (Phenomenon of job lock people forced to stayed at work despite health and other problems) (Benjamin et al., 2008) Raising pension ages may reinforce income inequalities (those with lower life expectancy funding the pensions of those with higher life expectancy).

35 SELECTED REFERENCES Department for Work and Pensions (2014) Fuller Working Lives: Background Evidence. DWP Komp, K. et al. (2010) Paid work between 60 and 70 years in Europe: a matter of socioeconomic status? Int.Jrnl.of Ageing and Later Life. 5, McDonald, L. & Donahue, P (2011) Retirement Lost? Canadian Journal on Aging, 30, Phillipson, C (2013) Ageing Polity Press Siegrist, J. and Wahrendorf, M. (2010) Quality of Work, Health and Retirement. The Lancet, Vol. 374, Standing, G (2011) The Precariat Bloomsbury van Solinge, H and Henkens, K (2014) Work-related factors as predictors in the retirement decision-making process of older workers in the Netherlands Ageing and Society 34, Vickerstaff, S. (2010) Older workers: The unavoidable obligation of extending our working lives. Sociology Compass: 4, Vickerstaff, S., Phillipson, C. & Wilkie, R. (eds) (2013) Work, Health and Well-Being: The Challenges of Managing Health at Work. Policy Press Wise, D. (2010) Facilitating Longer Working Lives: international evidence on why and how. Demography, 47: S131-S149