Education and other determinants of older adults’ participation in labor force in Brazil

Abstract

The extension of working life is associated with the accumulated years of schooling of individuals and with the characteristics of the pension system (COILE, 2018; GRUBER; WISE, 1999). In Brazil, people are acquiring years of education and beginning to work later. However, the availability of retirement programs make them leave early, despite increasing longevity (QUEIROZ; FERREIRA, 2021). This paper aims to characterize the changes in the labor force participation of elderly people across time, considering changes in the education composition. Census microdata were used (1980, 1991, 2000 and 2010), collected from IPUMS, and PNAD 2015. The labor force participation was estimated using binary logistic regression that considers potential determinants and represents the inequalities marking the context. Results show that the propensity to work is positively associated with schooling. However, little has changed regarding the working conditions of the elderly. The vulnerability faced by this labor force persists across time as do disadvantages for women and black people.