Ageing Workers in Finland and in the European Union: Their Situation and the Promotion of their Working Ability, Employability and Employment

Abstract

The ageing of the workforce presents serious challenges for ensuring and promoting the employment of people over 45 years of age. The baby-boom generation is approaching early retirement age. The factors keeping ageing workers in working life are a lot weaker than those accelerating their premature retirement. The general view is, however, rather fragmented because the interests in solving the ageing problem of the individual, the enterprise and society are not yet uniform. Talking and action seriously conflict when such factors as reorganization measures and lay-offs are targeted, not to mention how few people over 50 years of age have found work lately. The rather grim situation in which economic issues and human values contradict each other is well worth considerable improvement. The need for active measures is based on the simple fact that the number of older people in the workforce is increasing while the number of young workers will decrease at least until the year 2025. Reorganization appears not to be able to correct or regulate the age structure of the workforce. Since it does not seem that work will decrease or end during the next 20 to 30 years, workers will be needed. A remote country with a small workforce, where work is primarily done in Finnish, is much more vulnerable to a continuous imbalance in age structure than many other E.U. Member States. When the lack of a workforce emerges, a quick remedy cannot be imported from abroad. Therefore, all domestic age groups are required in order to sustain working life in Finland. The measures and solutions are targeted at the individual worker, the enterprise and society. All three of these parties are needed because they form a network in which the effects between workers, enterprises and society also affect each other. If one party is alienated or does not participate wholeheartedly, positive results are unattainable. Enterprises and work organizations make up the most critical party because the goal is to employ ageing people. The task of society is to create good requisites for the employment of ageing workers. The workers, as individuals, must also take responsibility. The greatest obstacle to the realization of these measures on the enterprise level is both prejudiced and practical in nature. A negative attitude towards age often acts as a hindrance, and the lack of time practically prevents commitment to improvements. Lack of information and expertise also slows down improvements. Examples prove, however, that such problems can be solved. In this article I wish to give a synthesis of the current knowledge based in particular on the numerous studies led by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health which, with several