Modern Employability

Keeping older people in the workforce longer will demand integrated efforts in various social sectors and on various social levels. We must achieve a clear paradigm change, rewriting the standard career biography to foster greater diversity and longevity. We must have a change of course and attitude at the level of policymaking, in unions and management, within businesses and for each individual.

Ultimately, the tasks of the future workplace will fall on the shoulders of a smaller and older potential workforce. By the year 2020, the number of people over 50 years of age in Germany will rise by almost 5 million, and their total representation in the potential workforce will rise from 22 to 34 percent. In fact, however, even now only 39 percent of the 55- to 65-year-olds in Germany are employed-a ratio far below the OECD average of 51 percent.

Although older people in Germany enjoy a rising life expectancy-those 60 years old can expect to live another 22 years or so, almost 5 years more than in 1970-the total number of years they work and the retirement age in western Germany has hardly changed since the 1970s. As a result, over the past 34 years the mean length of time an individual receives a pension has risen from 11.1 to 16.7 years (2003).

This is one reason for the acute financial problems facing our social assistance programs. But the mere fact that a predominant number of people actually retire early, exiting the workforce almost 4 years before the statutory retirement age of 65 years, is enough to cast doubt on the long-term funding of the retirement system.

The socioeconomic consequences of these developments are many and varied. On the one hand, the economy suffers a decline in added value and performance. On the other hand, unstable social welfare systems and the premature elimination of older workers' employment potential also put a dangerous strain on societal integration and social cohesion. Work and employment do more than secure an individual's survival; they also impart meaning to life and contribute to social cohesion.