Abstract
For the last two decades, the increase of employment among cohorts of individuals aged 50+ has been a policy objective on the European employment agenda. The present paper takes stock of the situation as observed in Belgium over the time period 1997-2011. First, we provide analysis on the evolution of older workers' employment in Belgium and its neighboring countries Germany, France and the Netherlands using the EU Labour Force Survey. Second, we characterize the different employment and hours of work patterns for different age sub‐groups (50‐54, 55‐59, 60‐64) and provide evidence on their respective evolution. The results show that employment rates among older workers started to catch‐up with employment rates of younger cohorts as of 2001, and with more acuity after 2006. This effect dominates the observed negative effect on hours of work and hence leads to an increase in total hours of work of the cohort – net of any purely demographic effects.
Highlights
Most European Union countries face the challenge of an aging population and the associated issue of short and long‐term sustainability of pay‐as‐you‐go public pension schemes – Belgium is no exception to the rule
European welfare states are under stress: demographic and social changes are leading to increasing demands in terms of expenditures at a time when the population in working age is shrinking
In the face of this observation, academic economists have been promoting the idea of increasing the employment rate of the elderly as one key policy area
Summary
Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author
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