The Employment Consequences of Disability After Age 50: Do Working Conditions Matter?

TL;DR

This study finds that older workers with disabilities are more likely to leave or change jobs, especially if their jobs are physically demanding.

Contribution

The study introduces the moderating role of working conditions in how disability affects employment outcomes for older workers.

Findings

Disability increases the likelihood of leaving paid work, working part-time, or seeking a new job.

Physically demanding jobs amplify the impact of disability on employment outcomes.

Working conditions significantly influence how older workers respond to disability.

Abstract

This study examines how employment responses to disability vary with working conditions. We use data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging and focus on individuals aged 50+ who experience the onset of one or more difficulties with activities of daily living (ADL) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) between two waves (N = 992). We combine coarsened exact matching and entropy balancing with logistic modelling to estimate the impact of the onset of disability on the probability of leaving paid work, working part-time, changing jobs or looking for a new job. We examine the moderating role of gender and working conditions (job autonomy, job demands, job physicality). Disability significantly increases the probability of leaving paid work, working part-time and looking for a new job. This effect is stronger for people who had a physically demanding job. This suggests the importance of working conditions in shaping older workers’ employment behaviours.