Project Category: Labor force participation

Cancer is among the most common health problems that adults face, leading to work disruptions and, consequently, decreased economic security of workers and their families. Black adults have higher risks of cancer-related job disruptions than their white counterparts....

Using new data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we will document pathways out of the labor force during the COVID-19 pandemic; estimate the persistence of transitions into retirement, disability, and other nonwork states for near retirement workers; and...

This project will examine whether there exists a link between occupational segregation by race and labor market outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will estimate the extent to which workers who were employed in occupations with higher concentrations of Black...

A large body of research examines the role of job demands in determining the timing of retirement, with mixed findings. However, this research does not account for the potential sorting of individuals into jobs with different demands and examines work activities...

Fewer than 50% of all American adults with work disabilities currently receive disability benefits, presenting a stark divergence between self-reported work-disability prevalence and disability awards. Yet, we know little about how work-disabled adults make their...

Drawing on Health and Retirement Study data collected in 2021, we will examine racial differences in the COVID-19 pandemic’s consequences on financial security. We hypothesize that, relative to their white counterparts, Black and Hispanic older workers were more...

Using existing and new data from the Understanding America Study, we will document racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in the type of work (e.g., full/part-time, gig work), work-from-home arrangements, and schedule flexibility introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic...

Creating a public resource of historical occupational information from the O*NET database linked with survey data in the HRS will allow researchers to better inform policy makers about the impact of long-term exposure to different types of tasks or work environments...

SSI and SSDI uptake are important mechanisms for workers with disabilities adjusting to negative shocks in the labor market. In this project, we aim to determine the extent to which structural barriers have excluded historically disadvantaged groups disproportionately...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had enormous effects on the United States labor market, disproportionately affecting women’s careers. In this project, we will use survey data collected before and during the pandemic to (1) analyze the impacts of the pandemic and associated...

We use six panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to measure the short- and long-term financial security of individuals who have earnings from nontraditional work, such as side self-employment, side business, and platform-based earnings (i.e., Uber)....

Many older adults engage in self-employment, yet little is known about the nature of these activities due to a lack of data on work ranging from occasional gig employment to contract work to business ownership. The implications of such arrangements for income and...

We will use data about early- and midlife adversity from the Health and Retirement Study, including the new Life History Mail Survey, to examine the effects of adverse experiences on retirement due to disability. We hypothesize that early- and midlife adverse...

After decades of growth, since 2010 both applications and awards for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) have steadily declined. This decline in SSDI applications has not been accompanied by an improvement in overall health as measured in national surveys....

We propose to develop a new method to assess individuals’ latent work capacity and relate it to: (1) their current employment status, and (2) their expectations about their probabilities of working at older ages. To do this, we will use a unique data set containing...

The validity and reliability of the tools SSA uses to assess claimant physical and mental functional capacity and physical and mental occupational requirements is critical to the effective provision of disability benefits and employment support services. This project...

This project aims to document household labor force participation responsiveness to social security program incentives in various countries. It will demonstrate anew the significance of these incentives using newly harmonized data on countries participating in the...