The labour market attachment of an aged population: An empirical analysis from Turkey

Abstract

The labour market attachment of older individuals is probably different from that of their younger counterparts since their career horizons are closer. In general, older individuals are not as willing to invest in their human capital. In this regard, one of the objectives of this paper is to investigate the impacts of human capital on the labour market attachments of older individuals. In addition, due to the constraints of commuting long distances, migrating in search of employment, learning new technological innovations or carrying out job search activities, older individuals are more likely to be limited to local opportunities. The other objective is to examine whether local labour market opportunities have an effect on the labour market attachment of older individuals. In other words, not only supply side of the labour market but also demand side of labour market is concerned in this paper.  Household Labour Force Surveys (2007, 2008) and a General Census of Industry and Business Establishments (2007, 2008) conducted by TurkStat are used in this research. We found that having a university education increases the labour market attachment of older individuals. Also, having a higher prevalence of jobs in the estate sector decreases the labour market attachment of older individuals. To sum, one can say that, labour market attachment of older individuals in Turkey is more likely to be related to supply side of the labour market not demand side of the labour market.