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

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.