Age, aging and labor—consequences for individuals and institutions

Abstract

Many advanced Western countries have been and will be facing both aging and shrinking populations in the decades to come. The challenges resulting from this demographic change for the labor market, the educational system and the welfare state are serious. However, they do not have to lead into a deep and inevitable crisis if political decision-makers, firms, society and individuals alike are willing to undertake the necessary changes. It is essential to start the necessary transformations now! In particular, institutions, working conditions and individual behavior need to be adjusted in order to keep elderly workers longer fit and healthy and to improve work/life balance over the life course. As a consequence, this empowers people to stay in employment longer than previously. This includes that traditional strategies of excluding older persons from further working and training are abandoned. In general, the one-sided negative view of the aging process has to be reconsidered. These were the guiding principles of the workshop “Age, aging and labor—consequences for individuals and institutions” that took place in April 2010 in Nuremberg and that was commonly hosted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development of the Jacobs University Bre-