ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the issues surrounding the employment of older adults in Singapore. Increasingly in modern society, the role of worker comes to occupy a significant part of an individual’s life course. At present, 75.6 per cent of adult males and 54.2 per cent of adult females in Singapore are actively engaged in the labour force (DOS 2005e). Their work history will influence their wellbeing at old age largely through income availability upon reaching that point as well as determining their social status in later life. Throughout their working life, their ability to work as well as the availability of work will be determined by an interaction of individual-level characteristics and state policy. For older persons, ageism is added onto this combination of factors. This chapter explicates the construction and implications of ageism for the older worker in Singapore and elucidates the responses to this inscribed label, especially among the current cohort of older people. The data are drawn from both quantitative and qualitative sources. The quantitative data are derived from the survey of 1,977 older adults in 1999 while the qualitative data come from the 2003 focus group discussions with older respondents and service providers as outlined in Chapter 1. Secondary data are also incorporated to provide a more comprehensive picture where needed.
