# Does economic skills obsolescence increase older workers’ absenteeism?

## TL;DR

This study finds that outdated job skills in older workers lead to more frequent and longer absences, partly due to burnout and lower work engagement.

## Contribution

This is the first multidisciplinary study linking economic skills obsolescence to absenteeism through burnout and work engagement.

## Key findings

- Economic skills obsolescence increases burnout, which in turn increases absence frequency and duration.
- Work engagement decreases with economic skills obsolescence, further increasing absenteeism.
- Both burnout and reduced work engagement mediate the relationship between ESO and absenteeism.

## Abstract

This paper is the first multidisciplinary study into the impact of new skill requirements in the job on absenteeism. The aim of this study was to investigate whether economic skills obsolescence (ESO) increased both absence frequency and average duration mediated by burnout and/or work engagement.

A longitudinal study was conducted on data from the Dutch Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (N=4493). Structural equation modelling was used to test the specific direct and indirect effects of ESO on absence frequency and average duration, followed by bootstrapping to compute the confidence intervals.

ESO at baseline had a positive relationship with burnout at follow-up. In turn, burnout was positively related to both absence frequency and average absence duration at follow-up. The bootstrap indirect effect test showed that ESO had a significant positive indirect effect, via burnout and (lower) work engagement, on absence frequency and average duration. Furthermore, ESO at baseline was negatively related to work engagement at follow-up. Work engagement, in turn, was negatively related to absence frequency and average duration at follow-up. The bootstrap test showed that ESO had a significant indirect effect, via work engagement, on absence frequency.

ESO is associated with subsequent absence frequency and average duration of workers, both mediated by burnout and decreased work engagement.