Extended working lives and late-career destabilisation: A longitudinal study of Finnish register data

This article analyses whether the trend of extending working lives has coincided with a destabilisation of late careers in Finland. On one hand, reforms that eliminate alternative exit pathways typically have been aimed at simplifying the transition from work to retirement. On the other hand, the need to work longer might entail a risk of increasing transitions between work and non-employment, as well as between jobs. Destabilisation is defined as the process of increasing complexity within individual life-course patterns over time. Using register-based Finnish Linked Employer-Employee Data, complexity within individual sequences of annual labour-market statuses between ages 51 and 65 is calculated for the Finnish population born between 1937 and 1948 (N = 238,099). Distinction is made between sequences that only include transitions between employment and non-employment and sequences that include transitions between different jobs as well. Results show that the average late-career complexity has decreased when only transitions between work, unemployment, and pension types are considered, especially among women and the higher-educated. Less change is observed among the lower-educated. When transitions between jobs are included, the results show a slight late-career destabilisation among men and lower-educated, but a decrease in complexity among women and higher-educated. The findings suggest that late-career complexity was increasingly determined by transitions between jobs rather than between spells of employment and non-employment. However, lower-educated older workers continued to be at greater risk of early exit, while at the same time experiencing destabilising employment careers.