Employing a stress theoretical perspective, we investigate the role of working time for the trajectory of health complaints at the transition from employment to retirement. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, we argue that higher weekly working hours are a health-impairing stressor during employment so that individuals with longer weekly working hours experience greater health improvements when retiring than those with shorter weekly working hours. Additonally, we assume that work time control as job resource buffers the relationship between weekly working hours and changes in health complaints. We used a subsample of a representative panel survey conducted in Germany. This comprised 876 employees who transitioned from employment to retirement. The results of the discontinuous multilevel growth model indicated longer weekly working hours and lower work time control lead to stronger decreases in health complaints from employment to retirement. However, we found no evidence of a buffering effect of work time control. 

The complete article is published in the Journal "sozialpolitik.ch" (2025).