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The rise of age-friendly jobs

Author

Listed:
  • Acemoglu, Daron
  • Mühlbach, Nicolaj Søndergaard
  • Scott, Andrew J.
Abstract
In 1990, one in five U.S. workers were aged over 50 years whereas today it is one in three. One possible explanation for this is that occupations have become more accommodating to the preferences of older workers. We explore this by constructing an “age-friendliness” index for occupations. We use Natural Language Processing to measure the degree of overlap between textual descriptions of occupations and characteristics which define age-friendliness. Our index provides an approximation to rankings produced by survey participants and has predictive power for the occupational share of older workers. We find that between 1990 and 2020 around three quarters of occupations have seen their age-friendliness increase and employment in above-average age-friendly occupations has risen by 49 million. However, older workers have not benefited disproportionately from this rise, with substantial gains going to younger females and college graduates and with male non-college educated workers losing out the most. These findings point to the need to frame the rise of age-friendly jobs in the context of other labour market trends and imperfections. Purely age-based policies are insufficient given both heterogeneity amongst older workers as well as similarities between groups of older and younger workers. The latter is especially apparent in the overlapping appeal of specific occupational characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Acemoglu, Daron & Mühlbach, Nicolaj Søndergaard & Scott, Andrew J., 2022. "The rise of age-friendly jobs," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:23:y:2022:i:c:s2212828x22000482
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2022.100416
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    Cited by:

    1. Wallenius, Johanna, 2022. "R(a)ising employment of older individuals," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    2. Scott, Andrew J., 2023. "The economics of longevity – An introduction," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    3. Philip Sauré & Arthur Seibold & Elizaveta Smorodenkova & Hosny Zoabi, 2023. "Occupations Shape Retirement across Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 10365, CESifo.
    4. Rocha de Jesus Fernandes, Anderson & Lanza Queiroz, Bernardo, 2024. "Aging, education and some other implications for the silver dividend in developing countries: Evidence from Brazil," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Age friendly; Ageing society; Employment; Labour markets; Older workers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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