The role of health in flexible working arrangements in Germany : Avenues to a longer working life?

Background: In the context of retaining labour resources to meet demographic developments, phased retirement on the basis of flexible work (FW) aims at delaying the labor force exits of older workers.

Objective: How do health conditions relate to the use of FW as an instrument for gradual retirement to extend working lives?

Material And Methods: By evaluating Cox proportional hazard models and by linking survey data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with register data from the Versichertenkontenstichprobe of the pension insurance records (VSKT), labor force exit rates at 50-65 years of age depending on health were analyzed.

Results: This study collated information about the discussion of labor flexibility as a tool to retain older workers in the labor market.