Completely Included, Partially Included or Partially Excluded in the Labour Market? an Exploratory Schema of Social Vulnerability in Late Careers

Life course sociology corresponds to an area of study traditionally interested in the analysis of vulnerability during early and middle adulthood careers. Yet, given an increasing attention over the last occupational period in Western countries, the current article aims to analyze the vulnerability confronted in late careers, focusing specifically in Switzerland. To this end, a new exploratory schema of vulnerability based on seminal life course notions and an inclusion/exclusion theory, is proposed for the analysis of late careers. Moreover, another aim corresponds to analyze how different life course determinants -such as life experiences in different domains and positional factors- impact the likelihood of confronting, or not confronting, social vulnerability during this occupational period. Longitudinal data comes from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARELIFE). Used methods are cluster, optimal matching, and discrete regression models. Results allow concluding first that the proposed conception of vulnerability based on an inclusion/exclusion schema has an acceptable empirical support. Second, that the likelihood of confronting or not social vulnerability during late careers depends mainly on early life experiences in family and occupational domains, as well as the positional status of workers.