The future for older workers: New perspectives

✍ Scribed by Wendy Loretto (editor); Sarah Vickerstaff (editor); Philip J. White (editor)

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 256
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Across the world governments in mature industrial and post-industrial economies are concerned about the ageing population. Dealing directly and exclusively with the issue of older workers, this book brings together up-to-the-minute research findings by many of the leading researchers and writers in the field. The duration and quality of working lives and the timing and circustances of retirement are of growing concern, especially in those cases where employers' demands and imperatives clash with employees' wishes. The contributions in this volume focus upon various measures taken by the state and employers to foster the employment of older workers in Britain, mainland Europe, the US and Japan. The authors address key issues that will influence public policy, exploring what workers over 50 want, the impact of the ageing workforce on employer policies and the implications for governments in promoting and supporting extended working lives. The book is aimed at academics, students, policy makers and other professionals (such as training managers, HR professionals and trade unionists) interested in contemporary issues within social policy, the sociology of ageing, and human resource and diversity management. It wil also be of interest to older workers themselves.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
The future for olderworkers
Contents
List of tables and figures
Foreword
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Glossary of UK-based institutionsand programmes
Notes on contributors
1. Introduction
2. Older workers in the labour market: the demographic context
Introduction
Background
Demographic change: tales from an old and declining population
Demographic change: comparisons with UK, European and global trends
Older people, older workers: social and policy responses
Conclusion
3. The American experience of age discrimination legislation
Introduction
The growth of interest in age discrimination
The origins of the 1967 ADEA
The working of the ADEA
Evaluating the ADEA
4. The employment of older people:can we learn from Japan?
Some conventional, and some less conventional, explanations
System strains
Policy responses
Conclusion
5. Moving older people into jobs:Incapacity Benefit, Labour’s reforms and the job shortfall in the UK regions
Introduction
Labour’s reforms: the story so far
Labour’s reforms: the next steps
The determinants of success
The geography of joblessness
The job shortfall for older workers
Conclusion
6. Women’s knowledge of, and attitudes to, pensions
Introduction
Summary of areas covered
Knowledge and understanding of pensions
Interest/engagement with pensions
Propensity to make pension and other savings
Confidence in pension provision
Retirement age
State pensions and compulsion
Conclusion
7. Sustaining working lives: the challenge of retention
Older workers, choice and sustainability
Personal and career development, guidance and learning
Characteristics of work 1: time, flexibility and work–life balance
Characteristics of work 2: control, job quality and health
Conclusion: sustaining working lives, changing work, changing workers
8. Healthy work for older workers: work design and management factors
Introduction
Work performance and age
Work-related health and age
Work-related stress and age
Conclusion
9. Flexible work and older workers
Introduction
Economic activity status among older men and women in Great Britain
Flexible working among older women and men
The prospect for increasing flexible options
More flexible options: opportunity or threat?
10. The employability of older workers: what works?
Introduction
The current state
Methodology
Research findings
Conclusion
Appendix
11. Is extending working life possible? Research and policy issues
Introduction
Retirement trends
Older workers and employment
Policy issues in extending retirement
Conclusion
12. The future for older workers:opportunities and constraints
The government role in extending working life
The role of employers
Individuals
Conclusion
Index