Age and Reemployment Success After Job Loss: An Integrative Model and Meta-Analysis

Despite widespread popular concern about what it means to be over 40 and unemployed, little attention has been paid in the literature to clarifying the role of age within the job seeking experience. Extending theory, we propose mechanisms by which chronological age affects job search and reemploymen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological bulletin 2016-04, Vol.142 (4), p.400-426
Main Authors: Wanberg, Connie R., Kanfer, Ruth, Hamann, Darla J., Zhang, Zhen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age
Age discrimination
Age Factors
Aging
Aging - psychology
Chronological Age
Efficacy
Employment
Employment - psychology
Human
Humans
Job hunting
Job Search
Meta-analysis
Models, Psychological
Reemployment
Self-efficacy
Systematic review
Unemployed people
Unemployment
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Despite widespread popular concern about what it means to be over 40 and unemployed, little attention has been paid in the literature to clarifying the role of age within the job seeking experience. Extending theory, we propose mechanisms by which chronological age affects job search and reemployment outcomes after job loss. Through a meta-analysis and examination of 2 supplemental datasets, we examine 5 questions: (a) How strong is the relationship between age and reemployment speed? (b) Does age disadvantage individuals with respect to other reemployment outcomes? (c) Is the relationship between age and reemployment outcomes mediated by job search activities? (d) Are these relationships generalizable? and (e) Are these relationships linear or curvilinear? Our findings provide evidence for a negative relationship between age and reemployment status and speed across job search decade, world region, and unemployment rate, with the strength of the negative relationship becoming stronger over age 50. Job search self-efficacy and job search intensity partially mediate the relationship between age and both reemployment status and speed.
ISSN:0033-2909
1939-1455
DOI:10.1037/bul0000019