摘要：The policy agenda of extending working lives requires a holistic understanding
of factors underlying the decision of older workers to withdraw from work and to
retire. This brief paper presents employment patterns and trends of older people
across EU Member States and identifies policy initiatives that would encourage
more flexible and later retirement. The descriptive empirical evidence (from the
EU Labour Force Survey) indicates that there are a broad range of experiences in
EU countries with respect to the employment of older workers (those aged 50 and
over). Strikingly, in the majority of EU15 countries, close to one-half of those
of 50 and over are either unemployed or inactive, with reliance either on early
retirement pensions or on social assistance benefits. The recent pension reforms
in a number of these countries have increased the retirement age and this is
likely to induce older workers to work longer. There is already some evidence
that the effective retirement age is on the increase. Results suggest that the
increase in older workers’ employment is stronger for women than for men, and
also for more highly educated. In most instances older workers either tend to be
in full-time employment or inactive with very few occupying intermediate
positions. Although there is some evidence of a gradual transition towards
retirement, there is still a relatively minor proportion of the work force
taking advantage of this, as well over 70% of men and around 55% of women in
employment in their early 60s worked 35 hours a week or more. The policy aim
should therefore be to encourage ‘flexible and later retirement’. Additional
incentives need to be provided so that people are not only able to move between
jobs in later working life but also able to work part-time, without losing their
entitlement to benefits (such as early retirement pensions). Such policy
incentives will enable workers to avoid the phenomenon of a ‘cliff-edge’ fall
into retirement that many of them often face.
关键词：Retirement; Retirement Policies; Labour Force and Employment, Size, and
Structure
