| Abstract: |
Working conditions have greatly evolved in recent decades in developed
countries. This evolution has been accompanied with the appearance of new
forms of work organisation that may be sources of stress and health risk for
older workers. As populations are ageing, these issues are particularly
worrying in terms of the health, labour force participation and Social
Security expenditure. This paper focuses on the links between quality of
employment and the health of older workers, using the Share 2004 survey. Our
research is based on two classical models: the Demand-Control model of Karasek
and Theorell (1991) and the Effort-Reward Imbalance model of Siegrist (1996),
which highlight three main dimensions: Demand that reflects perceived physical
pressure and stress due to a heavy work load; Control that refers to decision
latitude at work and the possibilities to develop new skills; and Reward that
corresponds to the feeling of receiving a correct salary relatively to efforts
made, of having prospects for personal progress and receiving deserved
recognition. These models also take into account the notion of support in
difficult situations at work and the feeling of job security. Our estimations
show that the health status of older workers is related to these factors.
Fairly low demand levels and a good level of reward are associated with a good
health status, for both men and women. Control only influences the health
status of women. Lastly, the results reveal the importance on health of a lack
of support at work and the feeling of job insecurity; regardless of gender;
these two factors are particularly related to the risk of depression. Thus
health status and working conditions are important determinants of the labour
force participation of older workers. |