Page 36 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

Increasing the value of age: guidance in employers’ age management strategies

Netherlands and Slovakia report the highest growth in employment, while
Greece, Romania and Portugal, report negative growth in the employment level
of this age group.
A recent Eurofound study on the impact of the recession on age
management policies shows that employment rates of older workers were much
more resistant to the consequences of the crisis than those of younger or core-
age workers (Eurofound, 2012a). In several of the countries covered,
employment rates for those aged 60 to 64 are higher in 2011 than they were pre-
crisis in 2008 (Austria, Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden).
Cross-country variation in employment is greater in the immediate pre-
retirement age cohort (60-64 years) and the data generally show strong cross-
country differences in the rate at which workers from the age of 55 onwards
withdraw from employment.
In most countries, lower employment rates for older workers are a legacy of
a policy in which early retirement was embraced as a way to generate labour
market adjustment. For instance, in the Czech Republic over 80% of those aged
50 to 54 are in employment, while the corresponding figure falls to 25% for those
aged 60 to 64.

Figure 3. Employment rate of male and female working population aged 55 to 64
(2012)

Source: Eurostat labour force survey, employment rate by sex, age and nationality (online data code
lfsa_ergan).

There are strong gender differences in employment among the older working
population, except for Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Sweden which show more
equal distribution among male and female working populations. The high
participation of the female working population in these countries also largely
explains the high overall employment figures in these countries.

30