CRITICAL EMPLOYMENT HISTORIES AND HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN LATER LIFE

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationships between critical employment histories and health and well-being in later life, using longitudinal studies of ageing in England and continental Europe. In particular we explore whether specific career characteristics of entire working histories (i.e. involuntary job loss, number and length of unemployment periods), from early to late adulthood, are related to cognition, well-being and several measures of health in late life. We use harmonized data from the Gateway to Global Aging Data for the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Study of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Employment histories were collected during a separate retrospective life history interview carried out in both studies using ‘calendar interviews’ which support respondents in remembering their prior life events.