Page 42 - Working-and-ageing-Guidance-and-counselling-for-mature-learning

3062_EN_C1_Layout 1 11/23/11 4:21 PM Page 36

Working and ageing
36 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

most prominent. What do employers think about postponing retirement?
Employers were asked about the desirability of older workers working
beyond the age of 60, respectively 65 years old (Table 2.5).
The UK is the only country of the five involved in the research in which a
majority of employers think that working beyond the age of 60 is desirable.
Greece, Spain and Hungary show an opposite picture: many employers
oppose workers being employed beyond the age of 60. For Hungary an
explanation could be that the official retirement age is lower than in most other
European countries (62 years for men and 60 for women).

Table 2.5. Opinions of employers on the timing of retirement (%)

EL ES HU NL UK
Working beyond the age of 60
Desirable 29 44 29 42 60
Indifferent 27 27 29 39 32
Undesirable 44 29 42 19 8

Working beyond the age of 65
Desirable 10 24 12 9 30
Indifferent 22 27 33 34 43
Undesirable 68 49 67 57 27

Source: Fair play employer survey, 2005 / OFA fair play employer survey Hungary, 2008

Working beyond the age of 65 is considered even less desirable. In none
of the countries involved in the research is a majority of employers in favour
of this option. Employers in the UK, however, are still the most positive about
older workers working after the age of 65 and employers in Greece, Hungary
and the Netherlands the most negative. The share of employers that think it
is undesirable for workers to continue after the age of 65 is in these countries
twice as high as in the UK.
To get more insight into employersʼ attitudes and behaviour regarding
employing older workers, we asked employers what their policies are
considering recruitment of older workers in response to personnel shortages
(Table 2.6).
Although there are differences across countries, preferences of employers
show that retaining or attracting older workers is obviously not their first or