Ratings of 830 Jobs on 45 Characteristics: Factor and Cluster Analyses into Age-Enhanced, Age-Neutral and Age-Counteracted, and Age-Impaired Categories

Abstract

The current study measured the critical elements of jobs and characterized the jobs' suitability for aging workers based on ratings of those elements. The sample consisted of 830 job tides collected by the Employment and Vocational Training Administration in Taiwan. For each job the ratings of 45 specific variables, falling into three major classes, were factor analyzed, using principal components analysis with varimax rotation. A nine-factor solution explained 50.1% of the variance. Using a nonhierarchical clustering procedure, 830 jobs were classified into three homogeneous clusters which were significantly different on nine factors except for Manual Dexterity. Mapping the ratings on the 9 factors and the characteristics of aging workers, the four job clusters were defined as Age-enhanced, Age-neutral, and Age-counteracted, and Age-impaired to describe the suitability for aging workers.