Education and Longer Working Lives PDF
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STUDIES S Noora Järnefelt Education and Longer Working Lives A longitudinal study on education differences in the late exit from working life of older employees in Finland Finnish Centre for Pensions, Studies 2010:1 STUDIES Education and Longer Working Lives Finnish Centre for Pensions FI-00065 Eläketurvakeskus Finland Tel. +358 10 7511 • Fax +358 9 148 1172 Eläketurvakeskus 00065 ELÄKETURVAKESKUS Puhelin 010 7511 • Faksi (09) 148 1172 Pensionsskyddscentralen 00065 PENSIONSSKYDDSCENTRALEN Tfn 010 7511 • Fax (09) 148 1172 Hakapaino Oy Helsinki 2010 ISBN 978-951-691-130-7 (printed) ISBN 978-951-691-131-4 (PDF) ISSN-L 1236-3049 ISSN 1236-3049 (printed) ISSN 1798-7482 (online) Noora Järnefelt Education and Longer Working Lives A longitudinal study on education differences in the late exit from working life of older employees in Finland Finnish Centre for Pensions, Studies 2010:1 Primary supervisor Professor Jouko Nätti, PhD Research Director, Centre for Social Research Department of Social Research University of Tampere Second supervisor Research Manager Anna-Maija Lehto Adjunct Professor, PhD Statistics Finland Pre-examiners Research Professor Olli Kangas Adjunct Professor, PhD Head of the Research Department The Social Insurance Institution of Finland Research Manager Eila Tuominen, PhD Finnish Centre for Pensions Dissertation opponent Research Professor Olli Kangas Adjunct Professor, PhD Head of the Research Department The Social Insurance Institution of Finland Author’s address: Noora Järnefelt Statistics Finland 00022 Statistics Finland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was carried out under supervision of the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my primary supervisor Jouko Nätti, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Tampere and Adjunct Professor at the University of Jyväskylä, who has taught me a great deal about the research process. His encouragement and confdence has carried me through many diffcult moments during this study. The idea of studying life-course and the ways in which the elements of the past life- courses of employees are connected to continuing in working life at an older age was initiated in the project Work, gender and aging − management of age in the later working life, funded by the Academy of Finland and headed by Adjunct Professor Raija Julkunen, to whom I am most grateful. I wish to sincerely thank Research Manager Anna-Maija Lehto, my second supervisor and my immediate superior at my place of work in the Finnish Work Life Survey at Statistics Finland. She has given me such an excellent example of enthusiasm towards studying working life. In her own work, she has stressed the signifcance of the level of education as a key factor infuencing the employment of older age groups, hence making a signifcant contribution to the basic design of this study. The dissertation process accelerated towards the end. The dissertation was offcially pre-examined by Research Professor Olli Kangas (KELA) and by Research Manager Eila Tuominen (ETK). I owe them a huge debt for agreeing to take on this task at such notice. Both made valuable and constructive comments that I was hopefully able to accommodate and, thereby, improve the fnal version of the dissertation. Without Professor Marja Järvelä’s understanding and prompt supervision of the process and practical help from Assistant Ainoriitta Pöllänen, the completion of the research process would hardly have been possible within the restriction of the tightened schedule. The Finnish Graduate School on Labour and Welfare Studies, the LabourNet, funded this work during the years 2004-2007. I particularly wish to thank the head of the LabourNet Graduate School, Professor Pertti Koistinen at the University of Tampere, for his genuine interest in advancing postgraduate education and creating an inspirational environment for the members of the school. I remember with warmth the postgraduate seminars of the LabourNet held by the member universities, often at sites of natural beauty, and the helpful comments and enjoyable discussions with the senior researchers and the other graduate students. I am grateful to the Finnish Work Environment Fund for the fnancial support that allowed me to complete this dissertation. The results of this study are based on record data formed by Statistics Finland. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with such a unique data set, and I appreciate Esa Haaramo, Heikki Oksanen and Pekka Ruotsalainen for their expertise in the construction of the data. I also thank Statistics Finland for giving me the opportunity to work on this study and for even supporting the work with paid study leaves. I am particularly indebted to Jussi Simpura, the former Director of the Social Statistics Department in Statistics Finland and currently Research Professor in the National Institute for Health and Welfare, for allowing me the fexibility to combine my research and offce work. I also thank Professor Risto Lehtonen for statistical advice. I thank the Finnish Centre for Pensions for publishing the dissertation. I am grateful to the Head of the Research Department and the executive editor of the Studies-series, Mikko Kautto, and Research Manager Eila Tuominen for their contribution to this fnishing stage of the dissertation. The layout of the publication was done by Merja Raunis, and without her professional skills and expertise, the completion of the publication would not have been possible given the tight schedule. My appreciation goes to Michael Dutton from the University of Jyväskylä Language Services for his quick and elegant editing of the language revision. Writing the dissertation has often involved hard and tedious work with occasional moments of success. My friend Marjo Pyy-Martikainen and co-workers Anna Pärnänen and Hanna Sutela from Statistics Finland have been valuable companions in this journey, sharing in the ups and downs of the dissertation process, and drawing from their own experiences. The long process of completing this dissertation has demanded a lot also from my family. My deepest thanks go to my husband, Mikko Kontiainen, for bearing with me. The many practical ways in which he has supported this work, starting from picking me up from work after an exhausting day, have made me feel cared for and have given me immense strength. It is in regard to this that I would like to offer my own take on a well-known phrase: beside a successful woman, there is a man − and not only one, but three! I am indebted to our lovely frst-born son, Tuukka, for giving me enormous joy and putting work-related matters into perspective, and to our yet to be born baby boy for giving me a proper boost during the home stretch of this work. Helsinki, April 2010 Noora Järnefelt ABSTRACT This study analyses and elaborates on education-related differences in the likelihood of 50-64 years old Finnish employees remaining in employment up until old-age retirement. The education-related differences affecting the likelihood of late exit from working life are seen to develop in a longitudinal process in which the characteristics of the adult life-course and the labour market context of employees mediate and modify the contribution of education. The present study is based on a body of Finnish longitudinal register data. The sample of 66 000 subjects consisted of employees born between 1932 and 1946 and employed until the end of the 1996. The information on employment or exit from working life of the subjects was recorded every year during the period 1997-2000. The data also included information on the life-courses of the subjects between the years 1970 and 1996 in the areas of family, work, economic-material conditions, and health. Moreover, indicators on the labour market context of the subjects (position in relation to the occupational restructuration, employer sector, and local unemployment rate) were recorded. The associations between education, the adult life course, the labour market context, and the fnal exit from working life were studied by means of logistic regression analysis. In addition, education-related differences in the relative risk of various early exit routes were examined using complementary log-log models. The results show that the higher the level of education, the higher the probability of late exit from working life. Education-related differences in late exit were essentially connected to characteristics of the subjects’ work paths and labour market context. Furthermore, the scale of education-related differences varied between employment sectors and was dependent on the subjects’ position in relation to the occupational restructuration of labour markets. Education-related differences were particularly pronounced in regard to the relative risk of early exit due to unemployment and acquisition of an ordinary disability pension. The results support the expectations that younger and better-educated cohorts are able to prolong their working lives as they grow older. The signifcance of the work and labour market-related factors suggest that investments in the improvement of working conditions and personnel policies are effective ways of prolonging working lives and supporting the employment of particularly those who are less educated. Keywords: education, age, older employees, employment, late exit, early exit, life course, labour markets TIIVISTELMÄ Tutkimuksessa analysoidaan koulutusryhmien välisiä eroja 50–64-vuotiaiden suomalaisten palkansaajien työssä pysymisessä. Lähtökohtana on oletus, että koulutusryhmien väliset erot kehittyvät pitkällä aikavälillä ja että palkansaajien elämänkulku aikuisena ja työm arkkinat ekijät välittävät ja muovaavat koulutuksen yhteyttä pitkään työssä pysymiseen. Tutkimus perustuu rekisteriaineistoon. Otos koostuu noin 66 000 henk ilöstä, jotka ovat syntyneet vuosina 1932–1946 ja jotka olivat palkansaajia vuoden 1996 lopussa. Tutkittavien työssä pysymistä tai työstä poistumista koskevat tiedot on saatu rekistereistä vuosittain seurantajaksolta 1997–2000. Aineisto sisälsi myös tietoja tutkittavien elämänkulusta vuos ien 1970 ja 1996 välillä liittyen perheeseen, työhön, taloudellis-materiaalisiin olosuhteisiin ja terveyteen. Tämän lisäksi aineis- tosta saatiin tietoja tutkittavien asemasta ja olosuhteista työmarkkinoilla (asema ammattirakenteen muutoksessa, työnantajasektori, alueellinen työttömyysaste). Logistisen regressioanalyysin avulla tutkittiin, miten elämänkulku aikuisena ja työmarkkinoihin liittyvät tekijät selittävät koulutuksen ja myöhäisen työstä pois- tumisen välistä yhteyttä. Koulutusryhmien välisiä eroja varhaisen työstä poistumisen reittien riskin suhteen tarkasteltiin complementary-log-log-malleilla. Koulutuksen ja myöhäisen työstä poistumisen välillä todettiin selkeä yhteys: mitä kork eampi koulutus oli, sitä suurempi oli todennäköisyys pysyä työssä vanhuuse läkeikään asti. Erityisesti työhön ja työmarkkinoihin liittyvät tekijät selit- tivät koulutuksen ja myöhäisen työstä poistumisen välistä yhteyttä. Muun muassa työnantajasektori ja henkilön asema ammattirakenteen muutoksessa vaikuttivat selvästi koulutuksen ja myöhäisen työstä poistumisen väliseen yhteyteen. Kas- vavilla ammattialoilla työskentely pikemminkin lisäsi kuin vähensi koulutustasojen välisiä eroja myöhäisessä työstä poistumisessa. Supistuvilla aloilla koulutustasojen välillä ei sen sijaan todettu merkitseviä eroja. Koulutustasojen välillä oli selviä eroja myös varhaisessa työstä poistumisessa koskien erityisesti työttömyysreittiä ja varsinaiselle työkyvyttömyyseläkkeelle siirtymistä. Mitä matalampi koulutustaso oli, sitä suurempi oli riski työstä poistumiseen näiden reittien kautta. Tulokset tukevat näkemystä, jonka mukaan nuoret ja paremmin koulutetut ikäluokat jatkavat työssä pidempään ja pidentävät siten työuria. Työ- ja työ- markkinaperäisten tekijöiden keskeinen osuus viittaa siihen, että työolojen ja henkilöstökäytäntöjen kehittämisellä voidaan pidentää työuria ja tukea erityisesti vähemmän koulutettujen työllisyyttä. Avainsanat: koulutus, ikä, vanhemmat työntekijät, työllisyys, työssä jatkaminen, varhainen työstä poistuminen, elämänkulku, työmarkkinat
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