As a follow-up to previous studies this analysis looks into whether there has been any recent change in mortality trends amongst occupational groups. The results presented in the report confirm some former trends found in inequality of occupational mortality for men, with some stable differences in life expectancy and in expected remaining life time at age 62 up to the year 2010.
When nine major groups (from the classification of occupations) are concerned, there has been stability in the patterns amongst males during the period 1980-2010. Measured as the gap between the highest and lowest level in life expectancy the difference was 5.5 – 6 years of living. After 2010 there has been a converging trend towards a smaller gap of 4.5 years of living as average in 2016-2020. This reduction can be interpreted to have some connection to the increased number of immigrant labours in some of the major groups. For females there has traditionally been a pattern of occupational mortality with more modest differences compared to the patterns amongst males. The gap between the highest and lowest life expectancy was 2.5 – 3 living years for some time. It has, however, been increasing to a level of 4 living years in the period after 2010. A lack of change after 2015 can be interpreted as an immigrant effect like the one amongst males, but to a lesser degree.
With more detailed level of division into 30 groups amongst males and 25 groups among females the trends in the long run has been less stable, as the groups are getting smaller. The gap between highest and lowest level in life expectancy was larger, about 7-8 years of living amongst males in the period 2006-2010. Up to 2020 there has been a reduction, as for the major groups, to 5.6 living years. When divided into 25 smaller groups the difference between the levels of life expectancy was 5.3 years of living in 2006-2010, which increased to 6.1 years of living as average in 2016-2020. There was however a small reduction between the two periods of five years after 2010.
When mortality is compared for the ages above 62, as the expected remaining years as pensioner, the differences between groups are smaller. It was calculated to 3.5 living years amongst the major groups of males for the period 2016-2020, compared to a gap of 4.5 living years when mortality in all ages was taken into consideration in the calculation of life expectancy. Measured as remaining years at the age of 62 the trends were more stable for males in the last decade, while there was a continuous increase after 2000 for females. In the generations of elderly up to 2020 there were less immigrants in the population of former labour force, as the most rapid increase of immigrants at the labour market was about 2010.
Both the patterns of occupational mortality and differences in health in general can be interpreted as selection effects when it comes to higher education. There are also some examples of connections between certain physical or chemical environment problems in some occupations and a particularly high mortality. The effects of environmental problems would have been better explained if the length of stay in the occupations had been taken into consideration in the analysis. The possible effects of immigrants in the labour marked had been better understood, as well.