Older Workers and Ageism in the covid-19 Pandemic in the State of São Paulo (Brazil): A Jurisprudential Study

Introduction Working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic affected many workers’ daily life, including their physical activity and sedentary behavior. This study investigated the longitudinal association of working from home during the pandemic with physical activity and sedentary behavior in older workers. Materials and Methods Longitudinal data from 17 questionnaire rounds of the Lifelines COVID-19 cohort (March 2020-February 2021) were used. In total, 19,076 and 11,757 workers aged 50 years and older were included for physical activity and sedentary behavior respectively. Physical activity levels and sedentary behavior before and during the pandemic were asked by multiple questions. Logistic Generalized Estimating Equations adjusted for demographic / work / health covariates were used. Results Older home workers were less likely to meet the recommended ≥150 minutes/week of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity activity during the pandemic than older location workers (OR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.87–0.95), and more likely to be less physically active than before the pandemic (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 1.01–1.14). Compared to older location workers, older home and hybrid workers were more likely to be more sedentary (sitting ≥8 hours/day) on workdays during than before the pandemic (OR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.35–1.65/OR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.39–1.83, respectively). Conclusions Older home workers (and to a lesser extent hybrid workers) were more often physically inactive and sedentary during than before the COVID-19 pandemic. As a substantial part of the working population still continue to work (partly) from home, workers should be supported to increase activity and reduce sitting while working from home.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the growing importance of digital technologies for economic resilience, especially for vulnerable groups like older workers in the informal sector. However, barriers to access and digital literacy create challenges alongside potential opportunities, particularly in less developed countries such as Ghana. Using older adults over 50 years engaged in informal work in Kumasi’s Central Business District in Ghana as a case, this paper explores older informal workers’ use of digital technologies in Ghana during the pandemic. Findings suggest that older informal workers relied heavily on their mobile phones as the only critical technological tool to sustain their businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the findings also reveal critical gaps in skills, training, and support, alongside resourcefulness in leveraging digital tools for business continuity. Key policy implications include expanding mobile-centric digital literacy programs, addressing infrastructure divides, and integrating capacity building into social protection. The paper contributes insights on strengthening lifelong learning and extending the working lives of older persons in the informal sector in the post-COVID era.

Occupational licensing is the fastest-growing labor market institution, and a significant portion of newly licensed individuals are older workers. This study introduces occupational licensing as an influential factor of later-life work and retirement by investigating the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of older workers newly attaining licenses and the choices of work adjustments after attaining licenses, as well as measuring the changes in these trends before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. I use the sample of workers aged between 50 and 60 from the IPUMS-CPS 2017-2019 (n = 3,831) and 2023-2025 (n = 2,674). I use propensity score matching to investigate the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of older workers newly attaining licenses, multinomial logistic regression with two-stage residual inclusion to examine the choice of work adjustments after newly attaining licenses, and linear regression to predict the reasons for newly attaining licenses. Older workers with more resources, from historically underrepresented groups, and self-employed are more likely to newly attain licenses, yet there is no statistical difference in license attainment before and after the pandemic. Attaining licenses increases the likelihood of moving to different employers before and after the pandemic, yet the reason for moving cannot be determined: career development or bridge employment. Prolonging the labor force participation of older workers is a growing interest. Subsidizing older workers' license attainment will contribute to prolonging their labor force participation by providing financial, psychological, and social benefits throughout their remaining work life-course.

For the first time in more than three decades, older workers’ labor force participation rates are no longer increasing. Even more remarkable is that this trend contrasts with changes among younger workers, who have experienced increases in labor force participation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. A narrative that has existed for more than two decades—that older workers have been the exception to reductions in labor force participation generally—may be coming to an end. A question then is, in the 2020s, will older workers who exited the labor force during the pandemic return? This symposium explores the new landscape that older workers face. The first paper addresses work-related trade-offs and the extent to which older workers assess the benefits and costs of continued work later in life. The second paper explores how pension eligibility triggers a new stage of the life course, in which older workers can leverage their newfound financial gains to improve work conditions or, alternatively, to exit the labor force. The third paper explores, specifically, how the Covid pandemic changed the workplace for older workers. The fourth paper rounds out the symposium by exploring the relationship between income and health in recent years in both the United States and in China. The flexibility of the U.S. labor force enables fairly abrupt shifts in workforce dynamics in response to macroeconomic changes and other events. The Covid-19 pandemic was one such shift. This symposium provides insight into the post-pandemic labor market for older workers. This is an Economics of Aging Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

Many workers, including older ones, experienced changes at work during the COVID-19 pandemic, among which was a sudden increase in the use of digital technologies. This paper aims at understanding older workers’ satisfaction with digital technology-related changes at work during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordics. Based on novel survey data collected in Sweden in 2020– 2021, we analyzed the experience with digital technology-related changes at work and modeled the (dis)satisfaction with such changes among older workers (aged 50+). Our findings show that groups of older, less educated, reporting concurrent workload changes and digital technology-related difficulties had an increased likelihood of being dissatisfied with digital technology-related changes at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results have implications for the theoretical understanding of late working life and for the redefinition of working life policies and age management strategies in times of work digitalization of work.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were suddenly forced to work from home. As a result, workers’ daily routine and work environment changed considerably which may have affected the lifestyle and health of these workers. For example, being confined to the house may have resulted in more sedentary behavior, or increased musculoskeletal pain due to multiple factors including an unfavorable working environment at home. Also, working from home might have negatively affected mental health, such as reduced well-being, more feelings of stress and socially isolated. This phenomenon might even be more pronounced among older workers, as they in general are more vulnerable to psychosocial risks, less connected through social media and may experience obstacles in transitioning to remote working. Although the impact of working from home during COVID-19 pandemic has been studied among the general working population, the impact among older workers is still understudied. This special session will present four different studies on the impact of working from home on older workers across a range of areas including their physical activity and sedentary behavior, social isolation and stress and musculoskeletal pain. The studies have applied different and unique methods including large, longitudinal datasets and smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment surveys. The outcomes of the studies will provide starting points for a discussion on potential intervention strategies to reduce the negative impacts of working from home.

PurposeThe main purpose of this study was to analyze career adaptability among older workers by using a multidimensional model that considered perceived organizational support (POS), career satisfaction (CS) and motivation to continue working in South Korea.Design/methodology/approachFour hypotheses were developed based on a review of the literature, and the hypotheses were tested by a t-test, linear regression tests and hierarchical moderated regressions.FindingsThe major findings are as follows: First, older workers showed a higher level of career adaptability (CA) than young workers. Second, POS was positively related to CA. Third, CA was also related to CS. Lastly, motivation to continue working played a moderating role in the relationship between CA and CS.Originality/valueThe significance of this study lies in its enrichment of knowledge related to CA with older workers. In addition, the result of this study underscores the importance of CA and older workers in these very insecure working circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This opinion piece discusses the potential for older workers to help alieviate recruitment problems in the hospitality industry. These problems have been made worse by the Covid-19 Pandemic and, in the UK, by Brexit and changes to immigration rules. There are many advantages of employing older workers in the hospitality industry but there is a persistent paradigm that older workers are resistent to change, have higher levels of absenteeism and possess poor IT skills. As many of the issues associated with barriers to the employment of older workers are due to negative stereotying and subtle bias, the author advocates the application of Implicit Bias Theory to uncover and subsequetly help address discrimination against older workers.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about employment uncertainty and various unique stressors for workers, underlining the critical need to understand the implications of the pandemic on workers. Prior research documented the adverse effects of job insecurity and job demands on the well-being, work attitudes, and behavioral outcomes of workers; however, less is known about the effects of these factors on older workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, we surveyed 330 workers over the age of 55 in a U.S. Midwestern state. Results of partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis showed that the COVID-19-related stressors (i.e., job insecurity, job demands) are related to lower work engagement, increased turnover intent, and presenteeism behavior. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

BackgroundConstruction and nursing are critical industries. Although both careers involve physically and mentally demanding work, the risks to workers during the COVID-19 pandemic are not well understood. Nurses (both younger and older) are more likely to experience the ill effects of burnout and stress than construction workers, likely due to accelerated work demands and increased pressure on nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we analyzed a large social media data set using advanced natural language processing techniques to explore indicators of the mental status of workers across both industries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.ObjectiveThis social media analysis aims to fill a knowledge gap by comparing the tweets of younger and older construction workers and nurses to obtain insights into any potential risks to their mental health due to work health and safety issues.MethodsWe analyzed 1,505,638 tweets published on Twitter (subsequently rebranded as X) by younger and older (aged <45 vs >45 years) construction workers and nurses. The study period spanned 54 months, from January 2018 to June 2022, which equates to approximately 27 months before and 27 months after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The tweets were analyzed using big data analytics and computational linguistic analyses.ResultsText analyses revealed that nurses made greater use of hashtags and keywords (both monograms and bigrams) associated with burnout, health issues, and mental health compared to construction workers. The COVID-19 pandemic had a pronounced effect on nurses’ tweets, and this was especially noticeable in younger nurses. Tweets about health and well-being contained more first-person singular pronouns and affect words, and health-related tweets contained more affect words. Sentiment analyses revealed that, overall, nurses had a higher proportion of positive sentiment in their tweets than construction workers. However, this changed markedly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since early 2020, sentiment switched, and negative sentiment dominated the tweets of nurses. No such crossover was observed in the tweets of construction workers.ConclusionsThe social media analysis revealed that younger nurses had language use patterns consistent with someone experiencing the ill effects of burnout and stress. Older construction workers had more negative sentiments than younger workers, who were more focused on communicating about social and recreational activities rather than work matters. More broadly, these findings demonstrate the utility of large data sets enabled by social media to understand the well-being of target populations, especially during times of rapid societal change.

Although many studies have investigated burnout, stress, and mental health issues among health care workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, few have linked these relationships to chronic physiological illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases. This study assessed changes in cardiovascular risk factors in HCWs and other hospital workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and identified vulnerable groups at a higher risk of increased adverse cardiovascular conditions. Five hundred and fourteen hospital employees ≥ 20 years of age underwent physical examinations and laboratory testing once before and once after the first wave of the pandemic in Taiwan during 2020 and 2021. Their sociodemographic characteristics and cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure, blood biochemical parameters, and body mass index, were collected. The differences between pre- and post-pandemic measurements of their biophysical and blood biochemical parameters were analyzed using pairwise tests. The post-pandemic increases in their parameter levels and cardiovascular risk as a function of underlying factors were estimated from multivariate regressions. HCWs showed significant increases in levels and abnormal rates of BMI, blood pressure, plasma glucose, and total cholesterol after the pandemic. Post-pandemic increases in BMI, waist circumference, and blood pressure were higher in females than in males. Workers with higher levels of education or longer job tenure had greater increases in BMI, triglyceride, and total cholesterol levels than other workers. Females had a higher incidence of abnormal BMI and hypertension than males (adjusted odds ratios [AORs] of 8.3 and 2.9, respectively). Older workers' incidence of hypertension was higher than younger workers' (AOR = 3.5). Preventive strategies should be implemented for HCWs susceptible to cardiovascular diseases during emerging infectious disease outbreaks.

Purpose Explore working-from-home experiences and well-being of older workers in the public sector using an agency theory lens. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative research design involving semi-structured group interviews with 40 older workers (aged 50+) in the Australian public sector. Data was collected between December 2021 and June 2022, during the post-emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Older workers' working-from-home experiences differ in three salient domains: exercising discretion over time and place to achieve work-life balance and manage health conditions; enhanced choice to remain active in the workforce beyond conventional retirement age; and constrained agency regarding location, leading to loneliness and diminished relationship quality. Agency was the differentiating factor between positive and negative experiences, mediating impacts on both hedonic (daily happiness and satisfaction) and eudaimonic (sense of purpose and meaningful relationships) well-being. Multi-level contextual conditions at macro, meso and micro levels determine older workers' ability to exercise agency when working-from-home. Practical implications Offering older workers work-from-home flexibility alone is insufficient for enhancing well-being; it requires the cultivation of a sense of agency, and the opportunity to leverage that agency to determine work arrangements that fit their individual circumstances. Originality/value Among the first qualitative studies within a public sector context examining the intersection of working-from-home, older workers and well-being through an agency theory lens. We offer a more nuanced understanding of multi-level (macro, meso, micro) conditions shaping older workers' agency and consequent well-being outcomes.

<h3>Objective</h3> The COVID-19 pandemic triggered widespread employment disruption, however studies on older workers are scarce. Undesired work changes at older ages may compromise long-term employment and health trajectories. To explore the impact of employment changes since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-reported health of older workers. <h3>Material and Methods</h3> Data were drawn from the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) study, a cohort of middle-aged individuals in England incepted in 2013-14. In February 2021 they reported on employment changes since March 2020 and perceived changes in mental and general health. Associations were analysed with Poisson regression, with robust standard errors, adjusting for age, sex, pre-pandemic self-rated health (SRH), pre-pandemic comorbidities, pre-pandemic financial position, and job type. <h3>Results</h3> 2,469 participants responded to the online survey (53% response rate). After exclusion of participants already retired before the pandemic, 1,104 (48% men, mean age 63 years) were included. Only 33% retained the same employment, while 34% transitioned to home working, 15% were furloughed, 6% retired and 12% experienced another change. Compared with participants with unchanged employment, those who switched to home working (RR 1.59, 95%CI 1.09, 2.32) and those who retired (RR 2.07, 95%CI 1.14, 3.78) were more likely to perceive a SRH worsening. Recent retirees were also more likely to perceive a mental health worsening (RR 1.71, 95%CI 0.99, 2.97). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Certain employment changes were associated with worsening of general and mental health. Some of the negative consequences of working from home during the peak of the pandemic may be explained by the shift to home working being sudden and forced. Health of the population should be monitored in the long term and support provided if needed.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large and immediate drop in employment among US workers, along with major expansions of unemployment insurance and work from home. We use Current Population Survey and Social Security application data to study employment among older adults and their participation in disability and retirement insurance programs through the second year of the pandemic. We find ongoing improvements in employment outcomes among older workers in the labor force, along with sustained higher levels in the share no longer in the labor force during this period. Applications for Social Security disability benefits remain depressed, particularly for Supplemental Security Income. In models accounting for the expiration of expanded unemployment insurance, we find some evidence that the loss of these additional financial supports resulted in an increase in disability claiming. Social Security retirement benefit claiming is approximately 3 percent higher during the second year of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large and immediate drop in employment among U.S. workers, along with major expansions of unemployment insurance (UI) and work from home. We use Current Population Survey and Social Security application data to study employment among older adults and their participation in disability and retirement insurance programs through the second year of the pandemic. We find ongoing improvements in employment outcomes among older workers in the labor force, along with sustained higher levels in the share no longer in the labor force during this period. Applications for Social Security disability benefits remain depressed, particularly for Supplemental Security Income. In models accounting for the expiration of expanded UI, we find some evidence that the loss of these additional financial supports resulted in an increase in disability claiming. Social Security retirement benefit claiming is approximately 3% higher during the second year of the pandemic.