Employment careers as structural determinants of social inequalities in all-cause and cause-specific disability and mortality

Belgium, like other high-income countries, witnessed rising unemployment, disability and more flexible employment trajectories. Understanding the potential effect of (flexible) employment careers on disability and mortality is the main objective of the project. The project aims at an in-depth investigation, from a longitudinal perspective, of the role of spells of unemployment, inactivity and precarious employment careers as causes of disability and mortality. 

Therefore we will systematically investigate the pathways between employment trajectories and disability and mortality. Also, the role of disability as a potential precursor of mortality will be studied in this context. We will do so by being sensitive to the intersectionality with social background characteristics – that is, the potential complex relation with gender, socioeconomic position and household composition. Research in this area is often hampered by a lack of appropriate data. The data for this project are unique because they provide longitudinal and continuous information on the employment status of workers, which can be linked to later disability and mortality. 

Despite the existence of good longitudinal registry data in Belgium, there is still very limited research in this area. This proposal aims to fill that gap. The data for this project will be derived from the linked census-mortality registry database and the Crossroads Bank for Social Security.