Thailand’s aging population has impacted its labor force. This study examines additional health capacity to work (AHCW) with established methods. Data were obtained from the mortality registry, national health, aging, labor force, and welfare surveys. The estimated AHCW for those aged 50 to 69 years utilizing the Milligan-Wise method was 1.3 years (8.7% [increase]) for males and 1.9 years (17.8%) for females, based on the 2005 Employment-Mortality relationship. With the Cutler-Meara-Richards-Shubik method, the AHCW for those aged 60-69 years in 2015 was an estimated range from 0.9 years (13.6%) to 2.0 years (31.3%) for males and from 1.2 years (23.2%) to 1.5 years (29.6%) for females. Informal, the elderly need to work to maintain their standard of living, due to limited retirement benefits. Effective policy measures to protect informal workers' health, prevent pensioners from being impoverished, facilitate a more flexible working environment and keep workers’ job competency should be implemented.

Jiaying Zhao is an honorary senior lecturer at the School of Demography, the Australian National University. She received her PhD in ANU, and a Bachelor Degree in Medicine at Fudan University, China. Her research interests include population aging, mortality and health transition, and health equity.  

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