Curtin University research has found that ill-health, both long-term and shorter-term \u2018health shocks\u2019, such as a serious injury or bout of illness, were likely to lead to earlier shifts not only from fulltime work to retirement, but also to part-time work or self-employment for older Australians.<\/p>\n
Based on the findings, published in Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics<\/em>, researchers believe government policies should be developed to both specifically target older workers recently hit by unexpected health changes and to make part-time and self-employment more flexible to encourage people to work longer.<\/p>\n Co-author John Curtin Distinguished Professor Mark Harris, from Curtin\u2019s School of Economics, Finance and Property, said as retirement age increased across the world, understanding different pathways for transitioning from full-time employment was crucial to the design of government policy.<\/p>\n \u201cOur research provides robust evidence around the role of health in influencing employment and retirement decisions and so may help governments to devise more targeted incentives for older workers to remain active in the labour market,\u201d Professor Harris said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur analysis was motivated by both the scarcity of knowledge and mixed findings around the relationship between ill-health and different paths into inactivity for workers in the latter stages of their work lives.<\/p>\n \u201cThe research also highlights the need for older Australians to be very aware of health and health conditions, especially as these are likely to affect their transitions from employment into eventual retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Harris said while the research found that older Australians experiencing a health shock or having a long-term health condition had a lower propensity for full-time employment and a higher likelihood of retirement, it also often led to part-time or self-employment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found one-off health changes or \u2018shocks\u2019 can yield large decreases in full-time employment and increases in inactivity as well as a rise in the uptake of retirement pathways such as \u00a0part-time work and self-employment for both men and women,\u201d Professor Harris said.<\/p>\n The research was done in collaboration with Professor Xueyan Zhao from Monash University and Dr Eugenio Zucchelli from Lancaster University and Madrid Institute for Advanced Study-Aut\u00f3noma, University of Madrid.<\/p>\n