Population ageing reflects
the success of societies in securing higher living standards, which in turn
results in increased longevity. However, the continued growth of older populations
also poses serious challenges for policymakers, particularly in relation to
economic growth. Increased expenditure on health and care for elderly people,
and in particular a critical labour shortage as larger cohorts of workers retire
at the same time, are some of the negative implications of population ageing
which are set to pose a serious threat to macroeconomic performance and competitiveness,
particularly in European countries. The European Commission forecasts that by
2030, the European Union will face a shortage of some 20.8 million people (6.8%)
of working age.
As a result, Europe has
developed a wide range of policy responses in relation to the ageing problem.
More specifically, the Lisbon European Council of 2000 and the Stockholm European
Council of 2001 agreed new strategic goals for strengthening employment, economic
reform and social cohesion in a knowledge-based economy. One of the principal
goals is to increase the overall employment rate to 70%, the proportion of women
in employment to 60% and the average employment rate of older people aged 55–64
years to 50% by 2010. Nonetheless, the results are variable in this regard across
EU Member States.
In order to achieve the
Lisbon and Stockholm targets, it is important to encourage workers to remain
in the labour market for a longer time. A prerequisite for this aim is increased
job quality and sustainability over the lifecycle. In this context, four key
areas have been identified, all of which are significant in shaping the age
structure of the workforce: career and employment security; health and well-being;
skills development; and reconciliation of workig and non-working life. Analysis
of these four areas forms the basis of this report. The following sections will
list some of the key findings outlined in this report relating to these four
aspects, largely based on the results of the 2005 European Working Conditions
Survey (EWCS).
Career and employment
security
Ensuring career and employment
security is important for promoting quality of work and employment. According
to the 2005 EWCS data, significant variations emerge across age groups in the
main characteristics of employment, such as the following:
– low-educated workers and
self-employed people are mainly composed of older workers;
– older workers are over-represented in agricultural activities and, although
to a lesser extent, in more knowledge-intensive sectors such as education; in
contrast, their presence is below average in the hotels and restaurants and
trade sectors;
– the incidence of part-time work declines as age increases and rises again
in the oldest age group; the latter also have a greater choice over whether
or not to work part time;
– temporary employment contracts are clearly concentrated among the youngest
workers, although their prevalence increases somewhat among the oldest age group,
especially among female workers.
In relation to
the key issues of employment security, job satisfaction and age discrimination
in the workplace, the following findings emerge:
– younger workers experience
a higher incidence of job insecurity, while older workers seem to be more ‘protected’
against such risks; nonetheless, both older and younger female workers appear
to be more exposed to job insecurity;
– regarding the link between employment arrangements and job satisfaction, the
EWCS data show that temporary contracts have a negative impact on workers’
job satisfaction, especially if associated with low employment security;
– the effects of age on job satisfaction appear to be significant only among
the youngest age group aged 15–24 years, who report a lower probability
of being satisfied than other age groups;
– the youngest and oldest age groups face the highest risk of age discrimination
in the workplace, although there has been a slight decrease in the proportion
of workers who report having been subjected to age discrimination, in particular
among younger workers;
– interestingly, a positive correlation emerges between education and skill
levels and age discrimination, with the less-educated and skilled workers reporting
lower levels of discrimination.
In relation to the earnings
profile of workers in the EU27, an inverted U-shape structure emerges, with
the proportion of people with earnings above the median rising up to the age
of 45–54 years, and then declining. This profile, which is similar to
the usual earnings profile by age, may reflect the fact that workers’
productivity initially increases as they gain on-the-job experience but then
plateaus or declines after a given age.
Health and well-being
Three aspects of the health
and well-being dimension are examined in the report: risk exposure, work organisation
and health problems.
In relation to the issue of risk exposure:
– a trend
towards a reduction in risk exposure emerges with increasing age, although a
worsening in working conditions is detected among those aged 45–55 years,
particularly among women; – older workers report higher exposure levels to risks
associated with physical position and
repetitive movements or heavy workloads;
– over the past 10 years, no particular improvements in worker exposure to physical
risks have been observed in the EU15, although some improvements have been observed
for workers aged 55 years and over.
The issue of work organisation,
another aspect affecting workers’ health and well-being, is addressed
by looking at three areas: the degree of autonomy at work, the intensity of
work and the spread of new high-performance work organisations (HPWOs). Some
of the key findings in this regard reveal that:
-work intensity decreases
while autonomy rises with increasing age, especially when comparing the values
of the extreme age groups;
– involvement in HPWOs is low among older workers, whereas it is more widespread
among younger workers;
– working conditions appear to be most critical for the youngest generations,
while conditions experienced by older workers seem to be more favourable.
In relation to
workers’ perception of their health status and of their ability to continue
working at the age of 60, the findings show that:
– young workers are least
aware of the impact of work on their health, while those aged 45–54
years show a significantly higher probability of recognising this correlation;
– working conditions involving exposure to physical risks, high work intensity
and non-standard working hours result in a greater perception of the impact
of work on health;
– the proportion of workers who believe that their health or safety are at
risk due to their working conditions has dropped significantly among those
aged over 55 years;
– the proportion of respondents who think they will be able to, or want to,
do the same job at the age of 60 increases with age;
– perceiving an effect of work on health, the presence of discrimination or
violence at the workplace or employment contracts with low security significantly
reduce respondents’ perception that they will be able to do the same
job at 60 years of age.
Skills development
The findings in this context
show that:
-older workers receive
less training than younger workers, and women have fewer opportunities in
this respect compared with men;
– the opportunity to learn new things at work is mainly given to adults, while
women, especially older women, receive fewer opportunities than men;
– the introduction of new technology has been found to be biased against low-skilled
workers, and while it appears to have improved job opportunities in some fields,
it has resulted in job losses for older workers;
– other things being equal, older workers have a 10% lower probability of
using computers at work than workers aged 25–35 years; however, in the
EU15, a substantial decline has been recorded in the proportion of workers
never using computers at work, the largest improvement being with respect
to older workers.
Reconciliation
of working and non-working life
Policies promoting a better
balance between work and family responsibilities are encouraged by the European
Commission and represent a major challenge for most European governments. The
EWCS data provide some additional insight into this issue, including the following
findings:
– only a slight tendency
towards a decline in the number of working hours is detected as workers age;
– more generally, inflexible working time arrangements may discourage older
workers from continuing to work for longer due to the difficulties in reconciling
work and family life;
– the proportion of workers who report having some power in choosing the organisation
of their working time increases with age, although this is higher among those
with non-standard working hours than on average;
– older workers do not seem to carry as heavy a burden in terms of family
responsibilities compared with middle-aged and female workers; however, although
older workers show a lower engagement in caring for children, they have a
higher likelihood of caring for an elderly or disabled relative compared with
other age groups;
– employment contracts and working time arrangements play an important role
in determining workers’ satisfaction with work–life balance: lower
levels of satisfaction are reported by those with non-standard working schedules,
low levels of job security or employability, or higher caring responsibilities.
Conclusions
Age is an important factor
in describing working conditions, with significant differences emerging between
younger and older workers for most job characteristics. To cite just a few examples,
younger workers are the most exposed to physical risk factors at the workplace
and the least satisfied with working conditions. On the other hand, they receive
more training opportunities and are more involved in HPWOs. Conversely, older
workers are more ‘protected’ against risk exposure and have a higher
degree of autonomy at the workplace and a lower degree of work intensity; however,
they receive fewer opportunities with respect to involvement in new organisational
forms, training and learning new things at work. Younger and older workers share
a higher probability of being subjected
to acts of discrimination at the workplace and, to a lesser extent, facing difficulties
in accessing information technology. However, adult workers carry a heavier
burden in relation to caring activities outside of work and report lower levels
of satisfaction with work–life balance.
An important target in
terms of age concerns workers approaching retirement age, notably those who
are between 45 and 54 years old. Thus, monitoring the working conditions of
this group of workers in order to ascertain potential factors that could determine
their premature exit from the labour market represents a crucial aim. Research
on the issue of older workers’ employability, in fact, has pointed out
how the low participation of older people in the labour market is the result
of a combination of wage conditions, rigidity in workplace organisation, inadequate
skills and competencies and poor health status, rather than the wish to retire
early. Moreover, the analysis in this report has indicated that workers facing
the worst working conditions and who are eligible to retire have probably already
left the labour market.
In an effort to sum up
the role of the different working conditions in determining older people’s
participation rates and to give a rough evaluation of how different factors
facilitate or hinder the employment of older workers, the report concludes by
correlating some aspects of working conditions with older workers’ employment
rates. Accordingly, positive correlations are found with respect to work autonomy,
the presence of HPWO, and access to learning and training. On the other hand,
a clearly negative correlation is detected between employment rates and exposure
to physical risks at work. At the same time, the correlation between satisfaction
and employment participation appears to be positive.
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