O-157 Occupational differences in working life expectancy and working years lost in Nordic countries

Introduction

Increasing work participation and extending working life is a political objective in many countries, including the Nordic. The study aimed to estimate working life expectancy (WLE) and working years lost (WYL) for the general population of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and to explore occupational differences.

Material and Methods

The study utilised registry-based general population cohorts and included individuals aged 30–64 in 2015 (N = 2,383,657 (Denmark); 1,668,445 (Finland); 2,339,351 (Norway); 3,924,819 (Sweden)). WLE and WYL were estimated using the prevalence-based Sullivan method based on age-specific mortality rates and information on the proportion of year 2015 spent in the following states: work, sickness absence, unemployment, disability retirement, retirement (early and old age retirement) and other. The results were stratified by gender and aggregated occupational group (first digit of ISCO-88).

Results

WLE at age 30 until age 65 ranged from 24 (Finland and Norway) to 30 (Sweden) years among men and from 21 (Norway) to 28 (Sweden) years among women. Depending on the country, most working years were lost due to sickness absence (1–4 years), unemployment (0–4), disability retirement (2–4) and retirement (0–2). In all countries and for both genders, the highest WLE was found among legislators, senior officials, managers and professionals (30–33). Men in elementary occupations had the lowest WLE (21–28). Among women, WLE was lowest for elementary occupations in Denmark (27), skilled agricultural and fishery workers in Finland (21) and Sweden (24) and service and sales workers in Norway (26).

Conclusions

Occupational differences in WLE were found in all countries, but varied between the countries, especially among women. Cross-country differences in reasons for not working might be explained by differences in the labour markets and social security and pension systems.