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Working and ageing
54 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

occupations – be it hobbies, small-scale utility value production for
the household, the neighbourhood or the community, membership
of clubs or associations, care for children, grandchildren or other
family members – then a ʻjumpʼ out of the labour force, away from
wage work towards self-determination of everyday life, would
seem rather tempting. This of course has to be balanced against
the economic costs of retirement from the labour market. If the
costs in terms of income loss are not too high, the temptation to
ʻjumpʼ is naturally higher (Sørensen and Møberg, 2005).

3.4.4. Transitional forces influencing labour demand
Stay Permanent updating of qualifications of older employees and
hence regular continuing vocational training of older employees
is one dimension which supports the stay forces. Another
dimension is improving working and health conditions for older
employees and to offer more attractive jobs so older workers are
willing to stay longer on the labour market.

(Re)entry In case of dismissals of (older) employees having very little chance
of finding another job, training or retraining of the unemployed is
an important policy option. The crucial question is what chances
the individual might have to return to employment. This depends
on individual characteristics, especially if qualifications have a
transfer value and are in demand elsewhere in the labour market
and, of course, there must remain a certain time span in which the
enterprise could profit from the (new) qualifications. Naturally it is
much shorter for older workers. Even with appropriate
qualifications, an enterprise might prefer a younger applicant for
whom financing continuing vocational training shows a better
return on the balance sheet. Particularly unskilled or low-skilled
older unemployed are in danger of being excluded from (re)entry
measures – and so are some skilled unemployed, depending on
whether their qualifications are scarce (or unique, which might be
the case for some groups of highly educated top-level employees)
or are common and in surplus in the labour market. Older persons
with (partial) incapacity, who therefore cannot find a job on ʻnormalʼ
terms, can be integrated into the labour market if they are offered
public support for establishing jobs with some kind of protected
conditions. Employers could also make jobs for older employees