Understanding the Aging Workforce Defining a Research Agenda (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Pages 195-234
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 195... ...
and older workers' reports of discrimination: coworkers' and managers' reported and observed discriminatory behavior toward older people. There is compelling evidence from field experiments that older workers suffer from age discrimination in hiring, demonstrating that stereotypes about older workers do affect employment decisions, which constrains labor demand for older workers.
|
From page 196... ...
For example, there is insufficient understanding of the potentially stronger age discrimination experienced by older women compared to older men (Chapters 6 and 8)
|
From page 197... ...
To study the multi-layered and dynamic impact of workplace practices on work and retirement pathways, it would be invaluable to establish a panel survey or modifying an existing federal survey with sufficient variation at both the workplace and individual levels. Such a panel survey should collect data from a random selection of workplaces from the population of employers, covering all sectors and all sizes of workplaces.
|
From page 198... ...
population more broadly, is becoming remarkably diverse in race/ ethnicity, nativity, family circumstance, education, occupational background, gender, and the intersections of these social identities. Labor force participation differs substantially across education groups and between Black men and other men (Chapter 2)
|
From page 199... ...
A Life Course Perspective of Inequality Though research on older workers often focuses on workers ages 50 and over, the processes that structure unequal work and retirement pathways at older ages do not begin at age 50. Applying a life-course lens to work and retirement pathways means recognizing that the resources and work/retirement options available in mid- and later-life accumulate and are shaped through prior life-course experiences of advantages and disadvantages; the relationships in which individuals are embedded; and the historical, policy, organizational, and social contexts in which they occur (Chapters 3 and 4)
|
From page 200... ...
Most research on the effects of automation is speculative at this stage, with only limited empirical evidence on recent changes and little research that goes beyond more "traditional" forms of automation to look at the automation of cognitive tasks by machine learning and artificial intelligence. Globalization and automation have contributed to and expanded on the effects of growing regional disparities in economic outcomes in the United States, which have left rising numbers of people in areas with low employment rates, high unemployment rates, high rates of Social Security Disability Insurance receipt, and related social ills, which might have broader repercussions for their well-being (Chapters 7 and 8)
|
From page 201... ...
. We also need to understand any simultaneous participation in formal and informal sector jobs, involuntary job separations that lead to labor force withdrawal before normal retirement age, barriers to work at older ages, sources of income, multiple occupations, sporadic jobs, access to health care and other labor benefits, and eligibility and take-up rates of supplemental income support programs for these low-income older adults (Chapters 4 and 8)
|
From page 202... ...
Knowing and tracing these pathways, especially across a diversity of populations, could help clarify the role of employment and civic engagement policies and practices in later life. CONCLUSION 2.4: Social networks play an important role in labor force participation and employ ment opportunities among younger workers; however, less is known about how these social mechanisms function with advancing age, as social networks retract, especially when individuals are pressed to retire or if they live in communities with few employment opportunities.
|
From page 203... ...
CONCLUSION 2.5: Inadequate retirement savings constrains older individuals' retirement decisions. Although there remains considerable debate regarding whether older adults have adequate savings for retirement, there is a consensus that workers today face growing challenges in saving adequately for retirement.
|
From page 204... ...
In particular, it is necessary to understand their labor transitions in and out of work, and in and out of the formal and informal sectors. There is also a need to better understand any simultaneous participation in formal and informal sector jobs, involuntary job separations that lead to labor force withdrawal before normal retirement age, barriers to work at older ages, sources of income, multiple occupations, sporadic jobs, access to healthcare and other labor benefits, and eligibility and take-up rates of supplemental income support programs for low-income older adults because these likely differ in important ways from those of more affluent older adults.
|
From page 205... ...
In particular, such surveys should gather more data on workers with frequent labor transitions, on jobs in both the formal and informal sectors, on work schedules and benefits, on workers with and without labor contracts, on methods of payment for workers, and on other variables that could provide a better understanding of the labor history for vulnerable individuals. Previous qualitative and quantitative research in the United States on self-employed gig workers, the informal sector, and low-income populations, as well as surveys developed for other countries with large proportions of individuals in poverty, could provide insights on how to better collect data for workers with complex work arrangements, multiple jobs, frequent transitions in and out of the labor force, or jobs in the informal sector or in the gig economy (Chapter 2)
|
From page 206... ...
This decline in health will have important implications for trends in the employment of older workers. The presence of chronic health conditions may affect the labor force participation and productivity of older workers in current and future cohorts.
|
From page 207... ...
Moreover, little is known about how recent declines in health at midlife and younger ages, particularly among those with less education, will affect labor force participation and worker needs for accommodative practices in the future.
|
From page 208... ...
Social Security Disability Insurance may also serve as a safety net for displaced workers with health issues, although there is no evidence applications have increased to date. Family leave policies allowed many older workers the flexibility to care for loved ones affected by the pandemic.
|
From page 209... ...
But these individual preferences, expectations, and constraints operate within complex systems of social and economic inequality that develop throughout the life course, and thus may be specific to the historical circumstances in which individuals enter adulthood and, later, retirement ages. Despite substantial research on older workers over the past several decades, we know too little about the well-being of older workers, that of older individuals who are not working but may wish to do so under certain conditions, and that of older individuals working despite their preference to retire.
|
From page 211... ...
American Economic Review, 89(5)
|
From page 212... ...
American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 107(5)
|
From page 213... ...
American Economic Review, 92(4)
|
From page 214... ...
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 4(4)
|
From page 215... ...
American Economic Review, 92(1)
|
From page 216... ...
American Economic Review, 79(3)
|
From page 217... ...
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 11(2)
|
From page 218... ...
American Economic Review, 94(3)
|
From page 219... ...
American Economic Review, 89(2)
|
From page 220... ...
passive decisions and crowd-out in retirement savings accounts: Evidence from Denmark. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(3)
|
From page 221... ...
American Economic Review, 101(3)
|
From page 222... ...
American Economic Review, 109(1)
|
From page 223... ...
. Age discrimination in the UK labour market.
|
From page 224... ...
Employee Benefit Research Institute.
|
From page 225... ...
American Economic Review, 106(5)
|
From page 226... ...
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 8(2)
|
From page 227... ...
American Economic Review, 91(4)
|
From page 228... ...
American Economic Review, 104(8)
|
From page 229... ...
American Economic Review, 89(2)
|
From page 230... ...
Evidence from Massachusetts. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 70(3)
|
From page 231... ...
Working Paper No. CRR WP 2020-2, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
|
From page 232... ...
Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 58(3)
|
From page 233... ...
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 82(2)
|
From page 234... ...
American Sociological Review, 76(2)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.