This article summarizes previous employment histories and studies associations between types of histories and quality of life in older ages. Retrospective information from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) was used and the occupational situation for each age between 30 and 65 of 4,808 men and 4,907 women aged 65 or older in Europe was considered. Similar histories were regrouped using sequence analyses, and multi-level modelling was applied to study associations with quality of life. To avoid reverse causality, individuals with poor health prior to or during their working life were excluded. Men's employment histories were dominated by long periods of paid employment that ended in retirement (‘regular’ histories). Women's histories were more diverse and also involved domestic work, either preceding regular careers (‘mixed’ histories) or dominating working life (‘home-maker’ histories). The highest quality of life was found among women with mixed histories and among men with regular histories and late retirement. In contrast, retirement between 55 and 60 (but not earlier) and regular histories ending in unemployment or domestic work (for men only) were related to lower quality of life, as well as home-maker histories in the case of women. Findings remain significant after controlling for social position, partnership and parental history, as well as income in older ages. Results point to the importance of continuous employment for health and wellbeing, not only during the working life, but also after labour market exit.
