Employment Experiences of Older Workers in the
Context of Shifts in the National Economy
Kevin E. Cahill
Tay K. McNamara
Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes
Monique Valcour
Presentation at the 65th Annual Scientific Meeting
of the Gerontological Society of America
San Diego, CA
November 17, 2012
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supported this research through a grant to the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.
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Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Timing of the Age & Generations Dataset
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average,
January 2007 – December 2009
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2007
Time 2
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Date (Year/Month)
2009
The Age & Generations Study
 Consisted of online and handwritten surveys of employees from
nine large organizations (12 worksites)
 Surveys were conducted at two points in time
 Time 1 (T1): November 2007 to March 2008
 Time 2 (T2): May 2008 to September 2008
 A sizable number of employees participated
 Time 1 (T1): 2,210 (participation rate = 46.4%)
 Time 2 (T2): 1,360 (participation rate = 28.7%)
 Approximately 900 employees participated in both surveys
 Questions focused on employee perceptions
 Job security, employee engagement, supervisory support, work overload,
and job quality
Our Paper
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Research Questions
 Are employees’ cognitive assessments of and affective and
behavioral orientations toward work and the work-life interface
related to the economic well-being of the society in which they live?
 How do the work experiences of older workers compare to those of
younger workers?
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Background
 The existing literature on the determinants of employee attitudes
focuses on family, organization, and societal systems.
 The role of the broader macroeconomy as a driving force of
employee attitudes has largely been unexplored.
Description of Macroeconomic Measures and
Employee Attitudes Used in Our Paper
Mean Scores for Job Satisfaction, Employee
Engagement, and Satisfaction with W-F Balance,
by Age Group
Key Findings: Effects of Macroeconomic
Variables on Employee Attitudes
+, ++, +++:
Indicates a positive coefficient that is significant at the 10%, 5%, and 1% level, respectively.
–, – –, – – –: Indicates a negative coefficient that is significant at the 10%, 5%, and 1% level, respectively.
Conclusions
 Across all workers, the state of the macroeconomy is a statisticallysignificant determinant of job satisfaction and satisfaction with workfamily balance.
 When the macroeconomy performs poorly employees tend to report
lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of satisfaction with
work-family balance.
 This finding suggests that employees’ job- and family-related
attitudes are influenced by factors beyond the immediate job and
family domains.
 An examination of workers by age reveals that those aged 55 years and
older report higher engagement scores compared with younger workers,
controlling for the current state of the macroeconomy.
 Older workers’ employment experiences are also less influenced by
fluctuations in housing prices compared with younger workers.
Implications and Limitations
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Implications
 The macroeconomy constitutes an influential context which may
shape the effects of managerial decisions and policies on
employees’ attitudes toward work and the work-family interface.
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Limitations
 The Age & Generations dataset contains at most two points in time
per employee and covers the onset of the Great Recession only.
 The sample of employees is drawn from large employers and,
further, from specific departments within these organizations.
 Changes attributed to macroeconomic conditions could be due to
organizational changes that took place in response to the
macroeconomy.
 Outcome measures did not vary widely over time or across
employees.