Mobility on the labour market, work ability and sick leave

The overall aim of this thesis is to study the potential causes and effects of mobility on the labour market among individuals with reduced work ability or who experience long-term sick leave. Long-term sick leave is associated with an increased likelihood of mobility out of the labour market. Changing jobs has been discussed as a strategy to extend participation in the labour force when the work ability is reduced in relation to the current job. The studied time periods ranged from 1994 to 2010, and all studies were conducted in Sweden.

In study I, registry data from the longitudinal integration database for health insurance and labour market studies (LISA) were used to investigate whether job change affected the likelihood of remaining in the labour market among people who experienced long-term sick leave. Among the individuals with over 180 days of absence in the first year, those who changed their job during the following year had a higher likelihood of having a job 2–4 years later than individuals who remained in the same job.

In Study II, the LISA data were used to examine whether differences in the number of absences due to sickness between workplaces can be explained by the health selection of recruits. The results showed that workplaces with high average levels of sick leave were more likely to hire a person with a high rate of sick leave the year before their recruitment than workplaces with low average levels ofsick leave.

In Study III, the LISA data were used to study individual and workplace factors predicting job change and exit from the labour market among individuals who experienced long-term sick leave. The results showed that both the workplace and individual characteristics predicted job change and exit.

In Study IV, data from the Stockholm Public Health Cohort were used to examine if demand, control, support and physical strain, as well as the type of employment contract, affected the probability of whether employees with a reduced work ability would change jobs or leave the labour market. The results showed that temporary employment contracts increased the likelihood of both change and exit. Low job control (women) and physically strenuous work (men) increased the probability of exit but not job change. Among women, physically stenous work predicted both outcomes.

List of scientific papers

I. Nordström, K., Ekberg, K., Hemmingsson, T., Johansson, G. (2014). Sick leave and the impact of Job-to-job mobility on the future vocational situation. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:305.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-305

II. Nordström, K., Hemmingsson, T., Ekberg, K., Johansson, G. (2015). Sickness absence in workplaces: does it reflect a healthy hire effect? Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2016;29(2):315–330.
https://doi.org/10.13075/ijomeh.1896.00522

III. Nordström, K., Ekberg, K., Hemmingsson, T., Johansson, G. The importance of individual and workplace characteristics for exit from the labor market and job change among long-term sick listed workers. [Manuscript]

IV. Nordström, K., Hemmingsson, T., Ekberg, K., Alderling, M., Johansson, G. The importance of work conditions for labor market exit and job change among individuals with reduced work ability. [Manuscript]