THE REPERCUSSIONS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION OF OLDER PEOPLE: A NARRATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

In 2002, the World Health Organisation (WHO) designed a framework for active ageing society which was implemented by most of the countries in the world to date. Furthermore, several studies have explained that the labour force participation of older people is one of the key factors in promoting the concept of active ageing (Punyakaew et al., 2019; Halaweh et al., 2018). Due to an unexpected disastrous COVID-19 pandemic emerged, there is a need to revisit the possible effects of this pandemic on the labour force participation of the older population. As of 25 November 2020, WHO reported that there are more than 59 million infected people and 1,397,139 deaths in 216 countries worldwide and the numbers are still rising at a rapid rate. Older people were identified as one of the most vulnerable groups to COVID-19 virus. It is expected that the current situation is less favourable to older people in Malaysia not only to their participation in the labour market, but in many aspects as well. This paper aims to provide a narrative literature review in an effort to understand how COVID-19 pandemic might have changed the decision of older people in participating in the labour force in Malaysia.