Barriers and Willingness to Accept Re-Employment among Unemployed Senior Workers: The SeniorWorkingLife Study

Kristina Thomassen, Emil Sundstrup, Sebastian V. Skovlund and Lars L. Andersen
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Kristina Thomassen: National Research Centre for the Working Environment, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Emil Sundstrup: National Research Centre for the Working Environment, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Sebastian V. Skovlund: National Research Centre for the Working Environment, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Lars L. Andersen: National Research Centre for the Working Environment, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-9

Abstract: Labor market participation has a positive impact on social inclusion and is linked to financial security. This study identifies barriers and willingness to accept re-employment among unemployed seniors that could highlight opportunities for societal action. From the first wave of SeniorWorkingLife in 2018 combined with the Danish version of the International Standard Classification of Occupations register (ISCO), +50-year-old unemployed senior workers ( n = 1682) were stratified into mainly seated work (ISCO 1–4) and mainly physical work (ISCO 5–9), respectively, in their latest employment. We used SurveyFreq and SurveyLogistics of SAS combined with model-assisted weights based on national registers to estimate representative frequencies and odds ratios (OR) for barriers and willingness to accept re-employment. Higher age was perceived as a general barrier for re-employment in both groups. Health was a more pronounced barrier for seniors with mainly physical work compared to seniors with mainly seated work (OR 2.35; CI95 1.31–4.21). Overall, seniors showed a large degree of flexibility and willingness to re-enter the labor market. Different barriers and willingness to accept re-employment exist among currently unemployed seniors. These results highlight the need for different approaches across occupational groups to help unemployed seniors back into the labor market.

Keywords: seniors; unemployment; return to work; occupational groups; labor market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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