When Work Hurts: The Health Consequences of Job Stress and Part-time Work among a Longitudinal Sample of Older European Workers

Abstract

[Abstract]: In the context of population ageing and extended working lives, understanding how employment quality affects older workers’ health is of growing policy relevance. Although previous research has linked working conditions to health, significant gaps remain in panel designs, unobserved heterogeneity, measurement validity, and sample representativeness. Using longitudinal microdata from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we estimate individual fixedeffects models over a 12-year period, controlling for time-invariant personal characteristics and improving the basis for causal inference. The analyses also control for temporal precedence and explore reverse causality. Results show that job stress has a strong and statistically significant within-person association with depression (OR = 2.22, p < 0.01). These results indicate that, for the same individual, periods of higher job stress are associated with more than twice the odds of developing depression compared to periods of lower stress. Part-time work is associated, on average, with a higher number of chronic conditions (β = 0.16, p < 0.01). When temporal lags are introduced, prior job stress predicts worse mental health (OR = 1.42, p < 0.01). Likewise, part-time employment two waves earlier is associated with a higher number of chronic conditions (β = 0.27, p < 0.05), indicating a meaningful long-term health effect. Limited evidence of reverse associations suggests that the dominant direction runs from employment conditions to health, rather than the opposite direction. These findings highlight the importance of improving job quality as a key component of policies aimed at extending working lives and promoting healthy ageing.