Older workers: opportunity and danger for the labor market

The progressive aging of the population generates stress in the labor market.

With the number of pensioners on the rise, and with

– a very large cohort that will receive higher benefits than today – on the brink of retirement, the reconfiguration of work structures has become a global challenge for everyone. countries.

One of the derivatives of this paradigm shift is that the oldest workers, those between 55 and 64 years old, are being sidelined in favor of younger employees, who are assumed to have greater skills to adapt to the technological advances brought about by new tools. like artificial intelligence.

However, this stigma stems from an erroneous approach, since it is, precisely, older workers who are best prepared to face processes of change, according to a study carried out by Oxford Economics, in collaboration with the University of Salamanca and the International Center on Aging (CENIE).

The study, entitled

, portrays the employment situation of older workers in Spain and within the European environment, and defends the presence of

in the companies.

“There are many erroneous discourses that cause aging to be perceived as a danger to our economic and social well-being.

That we live longer and in better conditions cannot become a source of problems,” said Óscar González, director of the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca.

The main derivative of the continued aging of the workforce has to do with their retirement time.

That is, how the payment of benefits for an increasingly larger group will impact the State's accounts.

The aging of the Spanish population “will lead to a reduction in the working-age population—people between 15 and 64 years old—and a significant increase in the dependency rate of the elderly, defined as the number of people over the age of 64. 65 years old compared to the population between 20 and 64 years old,” indicates the study.

“These changes could trigger slower economic growth and pose significant problems for authorities,” the text warns.

To avoid these future tensions, the report proposes a series of recommendations, such as increasing the retirement age, understood from the data of what age workers in Spain decide to retire, and not the legal age.

As detailed in the document, in Spain, in 2020, the average effective retirement age was around 61 years for men;

and at 60 years of age in women, figures lower than those found in most OECD countries.

However, these data do not agree with those recognized by Social Security, which sets the effective retirement age for that year at 65.1 years.

“The responsible authorities in Spain should consider increasing the official retirement age, as has happened in other countries with an aging workforce, such as Japan or Germany,” states the report, which also recommends that the priority be “ discourage early retirement among older workers.”

To this end, it proposes that access to any early retirement regime “be more rigorous.”

“In Spain, measures have been adopted in this regard, such as increasing the minimum number of years of contributions necessary to be entitled to a full pension,” the document acknowledges, although it considers that “there is still room to take more measures.”

Among them, considering “an increase in the costs of early retirement for employers or directly canceling early retirement.”

Resilience

According to the consulting firm's study, companies with older workforces coped better with the 2008 financial crisis. “Older workers tend to have more experience and specialized knowledge in their field, which becomes valuable in times of crisis.” , indicates the text.

“They may have a better understanding of how the business works and can provide valuable insights and solutions to resolve issues that arise,” he adds.

Furthermore, the document highlights that its presence contributes to improving the transmission of knowledge.

“Older workers can also mentor younger workers, guiding and supporting them as they face the challenges of a crisis.”

The defense of the presence of veteran workers in the workforce is raised from the perspective that in the next 25 years this niche of employees will gain even more weight in the labor pyramid.

“The percentage of inactive workers over 50 years of age per 100 workers will be 80% in 2050, 20 percentage points higher than today, estimated Shruti Singh, senior economist and head of aging and employment policies at the OECD, who has participated in the presentation of the report.

“In Spain, at the moment, there are more workers between 55 and 64 years old active than ever,” the academic highlighted.

However, this is a volume far from the average presented by, for example, several Nordic countries.

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