Germany: IZA institute says the removal of systems facilitating early retirement at 55 greatly helped increase seniors’ employment rate

r first report on “A Labor World Adapted to Age,” Ursula von der Leyen, German Employment Minister, said that Germany made “remarkable progress” in terms of seniors’ employment rate. Between 2000 and 2010, the activity rate of workers aged 55-64 went from 38 up to 58 percent. We talked with Hilmar Schneider, Director of Employment Policy within the IZA Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, about the reasons of this success, which he believes to be exclusively the product of the reforms of the legal framework. (Ref. 120143)

• Figures on seniors’ employment rate in Germany are not the same with different sources. Was the Labor Minister’s enthusiasm justified?

Hilmar Schneider. There is one key number: the activity rate of workers aged 55-64. until 2004, this rate was traditionally 38-39 percent.