Factors affecting the working life lenght of older people in the European Union

Abstract

Despite the fact that population ageing in the European Union is in full swing, and policy makers are pushing for exdenting of working lives, there is a group of older people, whose employment potential in labor market ends up dormant. The phenomenon of early retirement is worthy of a deeper research from the point of view of human resources management, as employers facing issues of digital economy often lose a skilled workforce and labor market is depleted of the potential of this group. The article is focused on the research of three factors in relation to the desire to retire early: "job satisfaction", "job physical demands" and "afraid health limits ability to work before regular retirement in job". The influence of selected factors on the desire of workers to retire early is specified through quantitative analysis of data from the SHARE -Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe. Chi-squared test of independence, Cramér`s V for dependence tightness and standardized (adjusted) Pearson residuals are used for analyzes. Results show the strongest intensity of dependence in relation to the desire to retire early with the job satisfaction factor. There is a weak dependence tightness in factors of the job physical demands and the individuals` health limits within professional performance. The analysis shows that it is very important that employers try to make their employees satisfied with job, because the consequences of such an effort are reflected in the employees` decision making whether to stay in job or to leave labor market through early retirement.

A Systematic Literature Review on the Relationship Between Quality of Work and Intentions to Retire Among Individuals Aged 50 and Older

“…The terms used to describe intentions to retire did not differ much across studies (see Table 4). Most commonly, authors have used the terms "retirement intentions" or "intentions to retire," but some studies have used the terms including "retirement preferences" (Carr et al, 2016), "desire to retire" (Grmanova & Bartek, 2022), "decision to retire" (Nilsson et al, 2011), or a combination of several terms (e.g., Dal Bianco et al ( 2015) used both "intended early retirement" and "desire to retire as soon as possible").…”

“…Some of the studies used theory-related constructs like effort-reward imbalance. While almost all studies used multiple-item tools to measure the quality of work, only one study (Grmanova & Bartek, 2022) used two items.…”

Job Satisfaction as Important Factor of Work Quality and the Influence of Selected Factors

“…Health is more important for men, marital status is more important for women, and recognition and fair treatment are also important for both sexes. According to Grmanova and Bartek (2022), the early retirement of older people in the European Union is strongly influenced by job satisfaction. Still, factors of physical job demands and the individuals' health limits within professional performance are not to blame.…”