and value flexible work arrangements, including both those related to flexible time schedules and changes in work roles and assigned tasks, and that providing such arrangements serves to delay retirement.<sup>72</sup> Particularly in HICs but also in some middle-income countries, COVID-19 has given rise to structural changes in the organization of work, with a rapid move towards more home-based and flexible solutions for many white-collar jobs, as well as a shift to independent work, that over the long run may benefit working conditions for mature workers.<sup>73</sup>

**Family and the availability of care services also matter for labor market participation, especially for**

**women.** Grandmothers all over the world hold a central responsibility for the care of their grandchildren, and hence support the labor market participation of the parents of these children. Towards the end of working life, many are also caring for elderly parents or even their spouse. In Europe, one-third of grandparents provide regular care and women who do are also less likely to be working.<sup>74</sup> Care obligations are even more prevalent in L/MICs, where three in four elderly people live in the same household with members of younger cohorts, compared to one in four in HICs, and where formal care services are often lacking in supply and quality.<sup>75</sup> A study of time use allocation in a set of OECD countries, China, and India, showed that the time share allocated to paid work fell successively as of age 45-50 across the sample, whereas unpaid work was highest when people were in the their late 30s (likely related to child bearing and rearing), and again increased after age 60.<sup>76</sup> In countries with significant outmigration, whether international or intranational, grandparents may be the main caregivers in so-called “skipped-generation” households consisting of only older people and children.<sup>77</sup> Studies from Brazil, Mexico, and Thailand show that grandmothers’ care obligations affect both their participation and hours worked negatively.<sup>78</sup> Since families are often formed relatively early in life, many of these grandmothers in L/MICs often have significant potential working years ahead when they leave the workforce, reduce hours, or move to less-demanding activities. Spouse employment is also generally positively correlated: to retire is a joint decision, made with a view to spending time together.<sup>79</sup> A study from the Russian Federation showed that having a working wife is associated with a 13 percentage point increase in the probability that a pension-age husband will still be employed.<sup>80</sup> In urban China, a working spouse is associated with as much as 40 percent and 58 percent increases in the probability of men and women working, respectively.<sup>81</sup>

**Lack of safe and reliable transportation systems affects mature workers’ access to productive opportunities.** More care responsibilities, lower stamina and physical strength, and related vulnerability to crime means that mature workers depend heavily on quality transportation services. A survey of senior workers in the United States suggested that lack of reliable transportation was a

> 72 Atkinson and Sandiford 2016.

> 73 McKinsey Global Institute 2021.

> 74 Backhaus and Barslund 2021.

75 UN 2007.

76 Ferranna et al. 2022.

> 77 UNFPA 2012.

> 78 Attanasio et al 2022, Paweenawat and Liao 2021. A study from Mexico also showed that female labor participation of a mother was not negatively correlated with more children, but that co-habitation with grandmothers increased in response to more children (Schmieder 2021).

> 79 Giles et al. 2012.

80 Levin 2015.

> 81 World Bank 2016.

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