Barriers and facilitators of older workers’ abilities to obtain and maintain employment: a scoping review

Throughout adulthood, the ability to access employment is vital for financial well-being, social inclusion and civic participation. This scoping review explores the factors that facilitate or challenge the abilities of workers age 50 and older to obtain and maintain paid employment. A total of 244 academic and grey literature articles were included in this scoping review. To frame the data extraction and analysis of included literature, we drew on Human Ecology Theory, a multidisciplinary theory that posits that individuals affect and are affected by the contexts they inhabit. Four key contexts were identified that impact older workers’ employability (and the relevant codes that comprise each context): individual context (health, income and wealth accumulation, education and skills, employment history, lifestyle preferences and personal characteristics); family context (obligations with intimate partners, obligations to dependent children and caregiving obligations); workplace context (organizational characteristics, workplace policies, job characteristics and workplace relationships) and sociopolitical context (ageism, government labour and pension policies and macroeconomic conditions). We conclude that the employability of older workers is not attributable to a single factor within any of these contexts. Rather, older workers’ abilities to maintain their labour force participation are fluid, situational and temporal, including aspects that arise across a person’s life course as forms of cumulative advantage or disadvantage. Policies to support older workers’ labour force participation require governments and employers to recognize how the dynamic lived experiences and relationships of individuals—within families, workplaces and society—shape their employability in later life.