The Willingness of Urban Elders to Participate in Labor Market: Case Study in Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract

Population aging has been identified as a clear trend since the turn of the century, followed by a decline in the labor market participation rate, reducing economic growth, while the state budget is unable to balance the tax revenue and financial support for the elderly. The elders face obstacles such as inadequate access to opportunities and resources including employment. These issues have triggered the requirement of productive ageing within the society. This study aims to understand the willingness to participate in the labour market of the current Vietnamese elder people. More specifically, it is to find out the elder people’s willingness to participate in the labour market based on the analyses of their resources such as information, education, income, psychological consciousness, that equip a person to utilize opportunities to be productive. It will also explain the interaction among these resources as well as their influence on the elderly’s willingness to participate in the labor market. The analyses are based on 20 indepth interviews of elder people living in Hanoi, Vietnam. The result confirms that there is a close relationship between elder people’s resources and their willingness to participate in the labour market. Practically, a better understanding of the elderly’s resources, in which some are easier to measure while some are important but hard to recognize, would be potential policy recommendations on the rational usage and preparation of labor resources among elder group, contributing to the "positive aging" process. Theoretically, this research is one of the first to determine the effects of one resource on another that lay the foundation of their agency in terms of their willingness for labor market participation