Employment

Population ageing in Western countries has made delayed retirement and extended working life a policy priority in recent years. Retirement timing has been linked to individual factors such as health and wealth, but less is known about the role of the psychosocial work environment. This paper drew upon longitudinal data on 3462 workers aged 50-69 from five waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Regression models were used to assess the association of working conditions with preferred timing of retirement and actual work exit. Adjusting for a range of covariates, job demands (aspects of the job requiring sustained physical or psychological effort) were associated with preferences for earlier retirement (by 0.18 years; 95 % C.I. 0.06, 0.31). Decision authority was associated with preferences for later retirement (by 0.38 years; 95 % C.I. 0.23, 0.53) and reduced odds of work exit (OR = 0.93; 95 % C.I. 0.88, 0.97). Low recognition at work was associated with increased odds of work exit (OR = 1.23; 95 % C.I. 1.10, 1.43). There was little evidence of any interactive relationship between demands and resources. Efforts to extend working life should address issues relating to the immediate psychosocial work environment. Providing older workers with increased sense of control, and ensuring contributions are adequately recognised, may delay retirement intentions and the timing of labour market exit.

The labour market by itself can create cyclical outcomes, even in the absence of exogenous shocks. The authors propose a theory that shows that the search behaviour of the employed has profound aggregate implications for the unemployed.

There were large cuts to the public workforce over the last parliament during a period of fiscal consolidation. The pace of public workforce cuts is likely to accelerate over the new parliament. This Briefing Note, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), looks at the movement between jobs, or ‘mobility’, of workers in the public and private sectors. It sets out the extent to which reductions in the public workforce to date have been delivered by freezing recruitment of new workers and not replacing workers who move to non-employment, and through more workers moving from the public sector to the private sector than moving in the other direction.

This paper documents the heterogeneity in labor market volatility across ages and gender in the United States over 1976-2014.

This report quantifies the likely impact on the distribution of income (and in particular, measures of poverty and inequality) of projected changes in the structure of the labour market over this decade.

This report documents the dynamic patterns in work and poverty for families using data for the years 2001 to 2006 from the Families and Children Study.

We infer the employment response to a minimum wage change by calibrating a model of employment for the restaurant industry.

An exploration of the New Deal for Young People programme.