Factors that Lead to Leaving the Labor Market at the Age of 45 and up in Russia: Role of Job Characteristics, Labor Mobility and Life-Long Learning

Abstract

This paper is devoted to analyzing the impact of labor mobility and life-long learning on employment termination, as well as to revealing the work characteristics that keep individuals on the labor market. It contributes to the discussion about factors associated with a person leaving the labor market to become economically inactive in retirement. In foreign and domestic literature most of the research is devoted to studying how personal and familial characteristics, as well as human capital influence employment. The impact of employment characteristics, labor mobility and life-long learning on a person’s chances to maintain a job has not been sufficiently studied, and the studies that do exist often come to contradictory conclusions. The research is based on 10 annual waves of the “Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS–HSE)” conducted from 2010 to 2019. Using the Cox regression with time-varying covariates, we obtained the hazard ratios of leaving the labor market for people at the age of 45 and older, for men and women. The results show that participation in life-long learning increases the chances of continuing to be employed by 19,1%, with that being more important for women. Labor mobility increases the risk of unemployment by more than 3,5 times for the target group, especially for men. The most common characteristics of employment in Russia — formal employment, full-time work, working in medium-sized or large enterprises — contribute to maintaining employment by 42, 19, 28–36%, respectively. Types of work outside of enterprises or organizations, as well as in private companies, accelerate the transition to unemployment.

Keywords

• middle-aged employment
• employment of the elderly
• factors of retirement
• labor market
• survival analysis