Increasing the employment rate of older workers

The Communication from the European Commission entitled ‘Europe 2020: A Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth’ includes the headline target of an employment rate of 75% of the population. This target employment rate is to be reached by, among others, increasing the involvement of older people in the work force and removing the obstacles to their employment. This article considers the employment rate of older workers, both from a historical and predictive standpoint. The makeup of the older European Union (EU) labour force and the types of work engaged in are discussed, with the United
Kingdom and Italy as detailed examples. Initiatives at EU level are considered, including initiatives to tackle age discrimination at work and the call for more flexible labour markets. Consideration is then given to the United States as an example of a deregulated labour market. Trends in American older worker employment are examined. From this, the authors draw several lessons from the US experience and offer tentative conclusions about the way forward for the European labour market.