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Preferred retirement age (PRA) is one key dimension when studying retirement decision-making. However, little is known concerning how PRA develops over the late career years. This study used a person-centered approach to longitudinally investigate trajectories of PRA and how they differ in self-rated health, perceived work ability, and effort–reward imbalance (ERI) at baseline levels and over 6 years. The study used data from four waves (2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016) of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health. The sample consisted of 1,510 individuals aged 50–55 in 2010, who answered to the questionnaire for those in paid work (including self-employment) at the baseline and at least one of the following waves. Results from the latent class growth curve modeling show both within- and between-person variability in PRA over the 6-year span. We found four distinct trajectories, which differed both at the baseline levels and in the patterns of change in PRA: “C1: normative, relatively stable PRA” (42% of all participants); “C2: considerably early, increasing PRA” (6% of the participants); “C3: late, relatively stable PRA” (4% of the participants); and “C4: early, increasing PRA” (49% of the participants). Participants revealed a clear preference for retirement before the age of 65. Trajectories comprising earlier PRA showed poorer self-rated health, poorer work ability, and higher levels of ERI at the baseline and over time. The findings reinforce the importance of healthy work environments that promote work ability and facilitate a balance between efforts and rewards for encouraging longer working lives.

Precarious employment has been associated with poor mental health. Moreover, increasing labour market precariousness may cause individuals to feel ‘locked-in’, in non-desired workplaces or occupations, out of fear of not finding a new employment. This could be experienced as a ‘loss of control’, with similar negative health consequences. It is plausible that the extent to which being in a non-desired occupation (NDO) or being in precarious employment (PE) has a negative impact on mental health differs according to age group. We tested this hypothesis using data from 2331 persons, 18–34, 35–44, and 45–54 years old, who answered questionnaires in 1999/2000, 2005, and 2010. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were calculated for poor mental health (GHQ-12) in 2010, after exposure to NDO and PE in 1999/2000 or 2005. NDO and PE were more common in the youngest age group, and they were both associated with poor mental health. In the middle age group the impact of NDO was null, while in contrast the IRR for PE was 1.7 (95% CI: 1.3–2.3) after full adjustment. The pattern was completely the opposite in the oldest age group (adjusted IRR for NDO 1.6 (1.1–2.4) and for PE 0.9 (0.6–1.4)). The population attributable fraction of poor mental health was 14.2% and 11.6%, respectively, for NDO in the youngest and oldest age group, and 17.2% for PE in the middle age group. While the consequences of PE have been widely discussed, those of NDO have not received attention. Interventions aimed at adapting work situations for older individuals and facilitating conditions of job change in such a way as to avoid risking unemployment or precarious employment situations may lead to improved mental health in this age group.

Organizational injustice is known to negatively affect employees’ health and to increase the risk for sickness absence. The negative health effects are also known to be more pronounced in uncontrollable, strain increasing, situations at the workplace. This study tests whether locked-in status, i.e., being stuck in a non-preferred workplace, modifies the associations between injustice perceptions and frequent (≥2 times/yr) and long (≥8 days/yr) sickness absence. The sample contained 2631 permanent employees from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health in 2018 and 2020. Multigroup structural equation modelling was used to compare the proposed relationships between employees who are locked-in in their workplace and employees who are not. We found a positive association between higher overall organizational injustice and long sickness absence two years later, with the association being stronger for the locked-in group. Also, higher injustice was associated with more frequent sickness absence, but only for those not being locked-in.

The need to delay retirement timing has been acknowledged in Western countries due to demographic ageing. The aim of the present study was to examine the buffering effects of job resources (decision authority, social support, work-time control, and rewards) on the association of exposures to physically demanding work tasks and physically hazardous work environment with non-disability retirement timing. Results from discrete-time event history analyses, in a sample of blue-collar workers (n = 1741; 2792 observations) from the nationwide longitudinal Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), supported that decision authority and social support may buffer the negative impact of heavy physical demands on working longer (continuing working vs retiring). Stratified analyses by gender showed that the buffering effect of decision authority remained significant for men, while that of social support remained significant for women. Moreover, an age effect was displayed, such that a buffering effect of social support on the association of heavy physical demands and high physical hazards with working longer were found among older men (≥64 years), but not younger (59–63 years). The findings suggest that heavy physical demands should be reduced, however, when not feasible physical demands should be accompanied by social support at work for delaying retirement.