workers are more likely to remain inactive than their younger counterparts.<sup>37</sup> A study of interstate informal sector migrant workers in India showed a strong and positive correlation between age and income losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.<sup>38</sup> These outcomes stand in contrast to the Global Financial Crisis, which did not result in a sustained reduction in older workers’ participation in labor markets.<sup>39</sup>

**The changing nature of work may be contributing to more age-friendly jobs** . Technology is enabling automation of many tasks, but also raises demand for skills that are (still) complementary to technology, such as creativity, problem solving, and socio-emotional competencies.<sup>40</sup> Globally, fastaging countries are seeing higher rates of automation, driven by skills gaps related to specific cohorts (manual production skills).<sup>41</sup> At the same time, in the United States, in parallel to the automation process, jobs have become more “age-friendly”: less physically demanding, more flexible, or involving autonomous and team work, for example. These jobs are not necessarily taken by mature workers, however, although they are more adapted to their needs and preferences.<sup>42</sup>

# Human capital and productive longevity

**Health and skills – human capital – are central to productive longevity.** The increase in labor force participation observed in OECD countries in the past decades can largely be attributed to higher life expectancy and educational attainment, whereas changes to statutory retirement age accounted for less than 10 percent of changes.<sup>43</sup>

**Before the COVID-19 pandemic, healthy life expectancy had been increasing globally, prolonging the physical and mental ability to work.** A strong relationship can be found between health and work in old age.<sup>44</sup> In the past two decades, healthy life expectancy (HALE)<sup>45</sup> has increased by 5.4 years, from 58.3 in 2000 to 63.7 in 2019 (Figure 5). Healthy additional life years have increased across all country income groups, although there are still gaps between advanced and developing countries. By 2015, a woman aged 60 living in an UMIC, could expect to live nearly 17 additional years in good health, all else equal, an increase by 21 months compared to 2000. LMICs and LICs have also seen increases in HALE, albeit somewhat smaller, and women aged 60 can now expect to live in good health for another 14 years. There are significant gender gaps, however: men can expect two fewer years of healthy life than women in HICs and UMICs. These statistics point to a gendered work, life, and health challenge: whereas women are more likely to live longer than men, especially in HICs and MICs, they are less likely to participate in work, especially in MICs.

> 37 Pizzinelli and Shibata 2022.

> 38 Guha et al. 2020.

> 39 OECD 2013.

> 40 World Bank 2019.

> 41 Acemoglu and Restrepo 2022.

> 42 Acemoglu et al. 2022.

43 Geppert et al. 2019.

> 44 E.g. Giles et al. 2012.

> 45 HALE is the average number of years that a person can expect to live in "full health" by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury. https://www.who.int/data/gho/indicatormetadata-registry/imr-details/66

11