A recently-launched Parliamentary inquiry is asking if policy needs to be changed to deal with the personal impact of night time or shift work. So how do unsocial working hours affect parents? Afshin Zilanawala from the University of Southampton and Anne McMunn from the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies at University College London discuss…
Tag: Employment
Let’s be fair! The importance of a balanced approach as we extend working lives
Extending people’s working lives has become a well-established policy in many parts of Europe as governments seek to reduce state pension costs in the context of growing ageing populations. But there are concerns about the health of older workers and what poor health among workers might mean for sickness absence rates and social security costs….
Who suffers most from the health effects of long-term work stress?
As populations across the developed world grow older, Governments are keen to find ways to enable workers to stay active and fit for longer. We know work-related stress can lead to long-term health problems: but which types of employment histories are particularly harmful, and how do the effects play out over time? A new study…
Being accommodating in the workplace: could it help close the disability employment gap?
In 2020, 8.4 million people of working age (16-64) reported that they were disabled which is 20% of the working age population. 52 percent of disabled people aged 16-64 were in work compared with 81 percent of non-disabled people. It’s a gap the Department for Work and Pensions wants to tackle, but good research for evidence-based…
Could having a psychologically demanding job actually be good for you?
Recent research has highlighted that those in psychologically demanding jobs which don’t offer possibility of control are more likely to become ill or to leave the labour market early. But a new study carried out in Sweden suggests the picture may be more complex than previously thought – for some workers, having a demanding job…
Lockdown – just how stressful has it been?
2020 is a year many will be happy to see the back of. It has been a stressful time for sure with periods of lockdown creating major challenges for our day to day work and family lives. But have the stresses and strains associated with lockdown affected the mental health of the UK population as…
Leaving school: how do work and family transitions affect women’s wealth and wellbeing later on?
How have the early adult lives of a generation of young women who grew up after the war impacted on their lives now? Baowen Xue and Anne McMunn from the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies at UCL discuss two new papers which look at life satisfaction, mental health and economic wealth among older women….
Is temporary employment bad for your health?
How is the health of those in insecure jobs affected by their working lives? Rachel Sumner and colleagues* have discovered some types of work may be just as strongly linked with poor health as unemployment is. It’s long been acknowledged that there’s a link between unemployment and poor health. A recent Government Green Paper put…
Are some types of job bad for your mental health? And how can employers ensure poor mental health does not lead to early retirement?
Mental illness is a major cause of early retirement – but do those who are forced to leave work early for this reason get better afterwards? What is the relationship between work stress and mental health? A new study of public sector workers in Finland suggests there is a link – and there are important…
Are universal state pensions discriminating against those in lower-skilled jobs?
With the state pension age likely to rise further in coming years, are policymakers right to link pension eligibility to average life expectancy? In a one-size-fits-all system, which social groups will lose out? Dr Emily Murray and colleagues* used census data to look at who lives longest after leaving work. In most industrialised countries, the…