Aging and Work Capacity.

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Labor Economics
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Declining health with age can reduce work capacity, creating a mismatch between individual abilities and job demands.
• Traditional health status measures do not fully capture how ability-job demand alignment affects labor supply.
• Understanding work capacity is vital for addressing challenges faced by the aging workforce.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel measure of work capacity by integrating self-reported abilities with occupational demands.
• To assess the relationship between age, individual abilities, and job requirements.
• To determine the predictive power of this new work capacity measure on labor supply outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized unique survey data on self-reported individual abilities.
• Harmonized survey data with occupational ability requirements from the O*NET database.
• Developed a new work capacity metric based on ability-job demand alignment.

Main Results:

• Average individual abilities exceed average occupational demands across various domains.
• Age-related declines in abilities are modest, particularly up to age 70.
• The newly developed work capacity measure shows relative stability with age.

Conclusions:

• The novel work capacity measure is a strong predictor of current and future labor supply.
• Work capacity remains relatively stable with age, contrary to expectations based solely on health decline.
• Findings have implications for workforce planning and policies supporting older workers.