Labour force participation and engagement by the older persons in enhancing productive ageing in Malaysia / Aslinda Ramely

• Main Author: Ramely, Aslinda
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Classes of labor, Including women, children, students, middle-aged and older persons, minorities
• Online Access: https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/60682/1/60682.pdf; https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/60682/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Mara

While the world's older population grows dramatically and socio-economic scenario is fast-changing, issues concerning the economic wellbeing of the older persons are conceded by many countries. In Malaysia, the alarming population of older persons will transform this country to be an aged nation by 2030. Even though this increasing population portrays good governance in the health care system, but further attention is needed in optimising the economic wellbeing of older persons. The quantity should not censure quality. Hence, this study anticipates exploring on labour force participation and engagement of the older persons as an initiative to empower their economic wellbeing and enhancing productive ageing. This study adopted phenomenological qualitative research focuses on semi-structured interviews involving 12 working older persons, 3 employers, and 4 key persons from government agencies which are the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and the Ministry of Human Resources (MOHR). Two sampling techniques, namely purposive and snowball sampling were utilized in selecting these informants. Qualitative data analysis software (NVivo 11 Pro) was used to manage the wealth of data. According to the findings, this study concluded the journey for Malaysia in moving forward as an aged friendly nation is challenging and requires further attention. This is because the participation of the older persons in the labour force is still moderate resulted in limited job opportunities provided to them even though the reasons of their employment is primarily due to the monetary orientation followed by the culture to aged productively. In the meantime, the gaps in existing policy and employment programme implemented also posed challenges to the enhancement of productive ageing through employment. The high number of younger populations should not be a reason to exclude the older persons to participate in the society through employment, especially when the findings of this study also divulged their active engagement and positive employment effects towards themselves, family members, society and to the country. This study recommends the enactment of Late Life Employment Policy and its action plan as a long-term solution. The recommendation for future practices, theories application and future studies are also worth to be reviewed. By keeping the fast-increasing older population at par as the economic wellbeing dimension by enhancing productive ageing, only then Malaysia will be a better place for older persons.