The impact of providing intensive care and practical help in mid-life on employment transitions in Europe

This paper examines how caregiving influences employment transitions among employed mid-life adults (50–69 years) who began providing non-professional care on a daily basis to someone inside or outside their household. Using data from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) from 2004 to 2017, we apply a difference-in-difference model with propensity score weighting to estimate probabilities of various employment change outcomes for each care status. These outcomes include reducing working hours, exiting the labour market, and retiring. Results are compared to those who continue to work. We assess heterogeneities by gender, income and three empirically identified care regime types from the first article in this special collection: strong defamilialism/supported familialism (strong DF/SF), moderate DF/SF and familialism-by-default (FbD). Results show that overall and for each gender and care regime, retiring is the most likely employment transition for new caregivers. However, low-income persons that make the transition into co-resident care in moderate DF/SF care regime countries are more likely to reduce working hours than non-carers. Regarding labour market exits, no significant overall effect was found. Nonetheless, exit was less likely among men in FbD regime countries when care occurred outside their household. This pattern may reflect financial pressures to stay in employment in contexts of limited state support (hence, an income effect). Women, on the other hand, are less likely to exit in strong DF/SF countries, which might be an income effect in that context. To conclude, caregiving significantly affects employment transitions, with notable differences across gender, income levels, and care regimes. These results underscore the importance of policies that support caregivers—particularly in familialist contexts—by providing affordable formal care options and flexible workplace arrangements to help them remain in employment.