Page 38 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

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market ( ), shows that micro enterprises tend to employ the highest share of
older employees (aged 50 or older) and the lowest share of young employees
(aged less than 25). SMEs employ the highest share of employees aged 25 to 50
and the lowest share of older employees. Large enterprises, in their turn, employ
the highest share of young people.
The tendency for large firms to hire younger employees seems global (Hu,
2003). One of the explanations offered for this is that large firms invest more in
training activities, with young employees generally perceived as being more
willing (and able) to follow firm-specific training activities. The costs of training
also tend to be lower for younger employees. Smaller firms are generally less
willing to invest in training activities and more often search for applicants with
some work experience.
A different explanation concerns the behaviour of the job candidates rather
than firms: the large share of young employees in large firms may also reflect a
preference of young people (who just finished their education) to start their career
in large enterprises where pay may be higher and there are more career
opportunities).

3.2.5. The exit age of older workers is increasing
The low employment figures for the population aged 54 to 65 should be
discussed in the context of the average exit age from the labour force. Most
countries are raising the statutory pension age:
(a) in Spain the retirement age raised in 2013-27 from 65 to 67 years old;
(b) in the UK, starting in 2018, women will have to be 65 to receive a pension,
equal to men, and from 2020 onwards, the pension age will further increase
to 66 years for both men and women;
(c) in Sweden, a 1999 reform linked the payable retirement pension to the
difference between the age of retirement and average life expectancy.

However, raising the pension age does not automatically mean that older
workers will remain in employment for longer. The average exit age from the
labour force in 2009 was about 61.5 years (European Commission, 2012b), in
spite of the typical pensionable age being 65 years old and despite governments’
efforts to develop incentives to stimulate longer working lives, while phasing out
early retirement measures.
The 2012 Eurobarometer survey on active ageing shows that ‘the majority of
citizens (59%) think they will carry on working until they are in their 60s; up to

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( ) EIM Business and Policy Research, 2011.

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