Employment conditions in an ageing world: Meeting the working time challenge (2004), Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 9, by A. Jolivet and S. Lee
Jolivet and Lee remind us how important employment conditions are in addressing ageing and its consequences in industrialized countries, especially by showing that employment conditions can influence decisions about employment at older ages. Then, they investigate how ageing affects working time in these countries, and their overall conclusion is that working time for older workers does not significantly differ from that for other age groups. They argue that one of the key reasons would be that many of those workers who did not want the prevailing working time patterns may have already exited from the labour market. In this respect, it is interesting to see their finding that the preferred length of working time for inactive older people is much shorter than that for employed ones. This paper also provides a useful overview of different national and enterprise policies concerning working time for older workers.