WI23-Q1: Older Workers, Working Longer? The Role of Precarious Work

As US life expectancy improves, the population and workforce are growing older, raising concerns about the finances of the Social Security program, the productivity of the national economy, and the economic security of older adults. Researchers and policymakers have pointed to longer working lives as one potential solution. However, many middle aged and older adults are employed in precarious, high-strain working conditions that may impede continued work into old age, posing risk for economic insecurity and poor wellbeing in retirement. In this research study, we examine how detailed measures of job quality are related to job satisfaction, job exits, and economic insecurity among approximately 29,000 workers ages 50 or older employed in the low-wage service sector (retail, pharmacy, grocery, hardware, electronics, general merchandise, fast food, casual dining, delivery and fulfillment, and hotel). Data come from The Shift Project, which has surveyed over 100,000 respondents currently or recently working at some of the largest service-sector employers in the United States across 13 bi-annual cross-sections from Fall 2016 through Fall 2022. To characterize job quality in this sector, we capture wages, electronic surveillance and sanctioning, schedule instability, paid leave, and automation and sales technology. Together, these job characteristics indicate workers’ job demands, job control, effort-reward balance, and potential accommodations for family circumstances. Our research will provide a uniquely detailed portrait of prevailing labor market conditions for aging workers in the service sector and demonstrate how they matter for workers’ job satisfaction, retirement decisions, and ultimately their economic well-being.