copy the linklink copied!Employment rates of older workers
The employment rate falls with age in all OECD countries. For individuals aged between 55 and 59 years, the average employment rate across all OECD countries was 72.5% in 2018, 49.6% for the 60-64 age group and 22.3% for those aged 65-69. In ten OECD countries the employment rates were above the OECD average for all age groups aged 55 and over; by contrast it was below average for all age groups in nine OECD countries. Employment rates of people aged 55-64 have improved since the start of the century in most OECD countries, from 43.9% in 2000 to 61.5% in 2018 on average.
There are large cross-country variations in the employment rates of people aged 55 to 69 in the OECD. In 2018, Iceland displayed the highest rates among all age groups, at 82.9% for those aged 55 to 59, 78.0% for individuals aged between 60 and 64 and 52.6% for those aged 65 to 69. By contrast, the lowest employment rates were found in Greece and Turkey where employment rates for people aged 55 to 59 were 52.3% and 39.6%, respectively. At ages 60-64 and 65-69 Luxembourg recorded the lowest employment rates in 2018, with 19.0% and 3.3% respectively. In addition, among the 60-64 age group, the employment rate is at 30% or lower in Belgium, Greece, Slovenia and Turkey.
In the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland and Germany the employment rates are well above the OECD average of 72.5% for individuals aged 55 to 59. However, they fall quickly with age and are below the OECD average for individuals aged between 65 and 69. In contrast, the employment rates in Mexico are below the OECD average for the 55 to 59 year-olds but above average in the age groups 60 to 64 and 65 to 69. In a large number of European OECD countries the employment rates are below the OECD average for all age groups considered: Belgium, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey.
Employment rates of people aged between 55 and 64 have improved in almost all OECD countries since the year 2000. On average, they have increased by 17.6 percentage points passing from 43.9% in 2000 to 61.5% in 2018. By comparison, the employment rate in the 25 to 54 age group increased, on average, from 76.8% in 2000 to 81.2% in 2018. The greatest increase for the 55-to-64 age group occurred in Germany from a relatively low level of 37.6% in 2000 to 71.4% in 2018. It is also larger than 30 percentage points in Hungary and the Slovak Republic. In Iceland and Turkey, the employment rates of the 55-64 declined slightly between 2000 and 2018.
Except for Korea where the pension system has not yet matured, countries with low normal retirement ages tend to have low employment rates among people aged between 60 and 64 years. This is the case in particular in Austria, Greece, Luxembourg, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia where the current normal retirement age (averaged across genders) is at 62.5 years or lower. Among countries with a high retirement age, the employment rate among older workers is low in Italy.
Definition and measurement
Employment rates are calculated as the ratio of the employed to the total population in the respective age group. Employed people are those (aged 15 or over) who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week.
Further Reading
OECD (2017), OECD Employment Outlook 2017, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/empl_outlook- 2017-en.
OECD reviews on ageing and employment policies: Working Better with Age reports on Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Switzerland (see http://www.oecd.org/els/employment/olderworkers).
Sonnet A., H. Olsen and T. Manfredi (2014), "Towards More Inclusive Ageing and Employment Policies: The Lessons from France, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland", De Economist, Vol. 162, December.
Note: Data for China, India and Indonesia refer to year 2010, 2012 and 2017 respectively. Age group 65-69 data for Russian Fed. are unavailable.
Source: OECD database Labour Market Statistics by sex and age: employment-population ratio. Argentina and Saudi Arabia: International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, https://ilostat.ilo.org.
Note: For better visibility, the scale of this chart excludes the lowest observed value for the normal retirement age in Turkey, which is 49.5 (average of 48 and 51 for women and men respectively), with the employment rate equalling 30.1%.
Source: OECD database Labour Market Statistics by sex and age: employment-population ratio. Normal retirement age data: See Chapter 4.
Note: Data for Argentina, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa refer to period 2004-2018, 2001-2018, 2000-2010, 2000-2017, 2009-2018 and 2001-2018 respectively.
Source: OECD database Labour Market Statistics by sex and age: employment-population ratio. Argentina and Saudi Arabia: International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT, https://ilostat.ilo.org.
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