Work till you drop? A note on the potential and limits of employment adjustment to demographic change

• Published in: Quality in ageing Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 275 - 281
• Main Author: Gaffney, Declan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brighton Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01-01-2012
• Subjects: Adjustment; Ageing; Aging; Demographic Change; Dependency ratios; Employment; Labor Market; Labour market; Older workers; Retirement policies; Sex; Values; Working Women; Young women; United Kingdom > UK; Iceland
• ISSN: 2044-1827; 2044-1835
• DOI: 10.1108/14717791211286959

Purpose -- How will labour markets adapt to population ageing? The demographic shift to be experienced over coming decades requires some sort of adjustment in working lives to balance increased longevity. But where in the lifecycle should this adjustment take place? It often seems to be assumed that ever-longer working lives are the only answer: the purpose of this article is to query this assumption and to suggest that there should be a balance of employment and other uses of time across the entire lifecycle. Design/methodology/approach -- The article analyses the impact of increased economic activity on the dependency ratio and it identifies plausible upper bounds to employment objectives by age and gender using international comparative data. Findings -- Increased employment for over-65s is likely to have limited impact on age dependency ratio: bigger impacts would be expected from the 55-65 age group and younger women. Originality/value -- The article brings comparative evidence to bear on labour market implications of population ageing. Adapted from the source document.