Hidden Workers in the Ageing World
A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Work, Employment and the Labor Market".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 March 2026 | Viewed by 89
Special Issue Editors
Interests: ageing populations’ work-health nexus; hidden workers; health equity; social determinants
Interests: poverty and inequality; vulnerability; health poverty and health inequity
2. Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
3. Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
Interests: ageing population; digital health; medical sociology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The global phenomenon of population aging has led to the necessity of ensuring the fitness of older people for work, life, and the future. Currently, a significant proportion of individuals aged 50–64 years old are hidden workers, which means that they are not employed but are willing to, or would like to, work. Those aged 50–64 who have left their jobs in the past ten years may have done so for ‘involuntary reasons’, typically due to ill health, caring responsibilities, or termination, with more than one third of these being over the age of 45 according to our research. Additionally, many older individuals do not have the ability to cope with prolonged unemployment and, when faced with significant financial hardship, health expenditure, and housing risk, may claim benefits earlier to replace their lost wages. Given this background, some individuals could be supported to overcome these barriers and remain in or return to some form of work. Therefore, this Special Issue welcomes scholars worldwide to contribute their research on the following topics:
- Participation trends concerning older workers (65+) in the labor force in high-, middle-, and low-income countries.
- Various work patterns and precarity among older workers.
- Identification of a spectrum of hidden workers, both socially and economically advantaged subgroups and emerging subgroups, due to recent social–political–technological–climate changes.
- Implications for policymaking in terms of social protection, HR policies, and older employee employability.
- Complex experiences of discouraged workers and their health and social issues.
- Simultaneous participation in formal jobs and informal labor (caregiving and other household activities) and their impact on health (physical and mental).
- Innovative practices from industry, government, and civil society to engage older populations for healthier, longer working lives.
Dr. Sora Lee
Dr. Woojin Kang
Dr. Lu Yang
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- hidden workers
- unemployed
- underemployed
- discouraged workers
- long-term unemployed
- labor underutilization
- intersectionality
- health inequity
- health poverty
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