What is the relationship between people’s employment and their resilience in later life?
To better understand how resilient societies are built and sustained, in this paper, researchers from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics (Anita Abramowska-Kmon, Milena Chełchowska, Martin Piotrowski and Paweł Strzelecki) examine the link between people’s employment and their resilience level later in life (after age of 50).
Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (“SHARE Survey”), they first identified five patterns of employment for people up to the age of 50: 1. “Stable full-time”, 2. “Mostly full-time”, 3. “Full-time with gaps”, 4. “Part-time prevalence” and 5. “High non-employment”. In the second step of their analysis, they assessed the resilience of the same respondents based on variables including their subjective well-being, financial situation, and health status. The respondents were then grouped into five “classes of resilience”, with those in Class 1 having the “best resilience”, and it decreasing from there.
Here is an overview of how they defined people's different levels of resilience later in life:
Class 1: The best overall health, well-being and financial situation
Class 2: The second best overall health, well-being and financial situation; worse physical health than Class 1
Class 3: Good physical and mental health, but with a worse financial situation than Class 1 and 2
Class 4: Poorer physical health, financial situation and quality of life than Class 3; frequent limitations in daily activities; chronic disease
Class 5: A worse financial situation than Class 4; slightly fewer limitations in daily activities than Class 4; the highest levels of depression and loneliness; the lowest quality of life
In the final stage of the research, the classes of resilience were analysed together with people’s employment patterns as well as a set of socio-demographic and economic individual characteristics.
The results show that individual characteristics and past employment history are associated with different resilience levels. In particular, women and older individuals (age 50 and above) were more likely to have poorer physical health (to be in Classes 2, 4 and 5) and mental health (especially Class 5), as well as to be worse off financially. This finding is consistent with the fact that, due to higher life expectancy among women than men, the older population is predominantly female. These individuals are characterised by poorer health, a lower subjective quality of life, and worse financial circumstances.
The analysis also reconfirmed earlier research that educational attainment is a strong determinant of resilience in people aged 50 and over, as those who were better educated were more likely to belong to higher resilience groups. Those who worked full-time throughout their lives tend to be the most resilient in older age, while those who spent most of their lives up to age 50 out of work exhibit the worst resilience characteristics later on. People who were less engaged in the labour market, whether through part-time work or long periods of unemployment, exhibited poorer resilience characteristics as compared to Class 1.
With the exception of those in Class 2, people with a history of full-time work and many gaps of non-employment were also less resilient later in life. The analysis also showed that respondents living in Northern and Western Europe were more likely to belong to the best resilience classes (1 and 2) than those living in Central and Eastern Europe, likely due to higher socio-economic levels and social security support.
To sum up, as individuals accumulate various forms of resources throughout their lives—such as human, social, and financial capital—their health status may decline at different rates depending on these resources, which are often linked to employment and other factors. Therefore, it is crucial to promote lifelong engagement in economic activity. This approach to social policy, aimed at equipping governments and institutions to respond to demographic changes, can contribute to building resilient societies in the future.
