In France, in 2019, 37% of employees do not feel able to hold on to their work until retirement, according to a study published by the Direction of the animation of research, studies and statistics of the ministry (Dares ). Exposure to occupational risks – physical or psychosocial – as well as an altered state of health go hand in hand with an increased feeling of unsustainability at work.
The least qualified professions, in contact with the public or in the care and social action sector, are considered by employees to be the least sustainable. Thus nurses, midwives and nursing auxiliaries are respectively 55% and 47% to feel an inability to last until retirement, work reaches 47% among nursing auxiliaries to peak at 55% among nurses and nurses. midwives, a rate that drops to 27% among doctors.
Employees who deem their work unsustainable have more choppy careers than others and retire earlier, with interruptions, particularly for health reasons, which increase at the end of their careers.
A work organization that promotes autonomy, employee participation and limits the intensity of work tends to make it more sustainable. Mobility, particularly towards self-employed status, is also a means of escaping the unsustainability of work, but these trajectories are infrequent, especially at advanced ages.
• What factors influence the ability of employees to do the same job until retirement?, Analyses, n°17, March 2023, Dares.
