Risky Professions? Risk of Disability in Professions in Norway

Modern professions provide important and essential services like engineering, financial services, and welfare state services. Sustaining a sufficient supply of these services requires professionals to remain in the workforce as long as possible. This article examines variation in the risk of disability pension among individuals with different professional education backgrounds according to the status of the profession and its primary task (i.e., caring for others, “life” professions; or providing other kinds of services, “thing” professions). Event history analysis was employed to examine register data for the Norwegian population from 1992 through 2008, with gender, age at completed education, birth year, and social status as control variables. The results indicate that individuals in low-status life professions were exposed to a greater risk of disability pension than individuals with other professional education backgrounds. Possible explanations are mechanisms related to selection effects, physical and mental job strain, and professional ethics.