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Trends (women 18 years). By the year 2000 this figure had increased to 16.2 years for men and 19.6 years for women. Long-term population forecasts for Austria indicate sustained population growth until 2030, followed by a downturn in the growth rate. In 2050, the percentage of the working population aged 65 or over will be in the region of 49%. In the year 2000 this figure was approximately 22%. As a result of the falling birth rate and increasing life expectancy, the age profile of the population of working age (15-64 years) is shifting towards older people. Against this backdrop, there are several reasons for promoting increased labour force participation amongst older people: • Shortly the ability of younger workers to meet labour demands will reach its limit. It will then only be possible to satisfy the demand for labour if older workers continue to work for longer and more intensively; • The long-term financing of the old-age pension system can only be guaranteed if measures are taken to raise the actual retirement age. This should make it harder for older workers to leave the labour market. Measures to increase the labour force participation of older people must be implemented within specific framework conditions: • The capacity for work of those in the last third of their working lives is frequently reduced by illness and disability, not least as a result of the occupations they had in the past; • On average, schooling and vocational training was completed twice as long ago in the case of older workers as for all other groups of working age. Each significant technological change in a given field of employment affects the employment opportunities of these people, particularly if they have not been able to develop their skills and knowledge. Measures designed to increase the integration of older people into the labour market currently stand at the centre of national labour policy. 2The Pact for Older People In October 2000, the federal government proposed a package of reforms in the form of the “Pact for Older People” which aims: Table 3: Number of retirements • firstly, to bring about a reduction in the number of early retirements and, • secondly, to increase the percentage of older people in work. 2.1 Pension legislation in Austria The statutory retirement age in Austria is 60 for women and 65 for men. In 2001, however, the actual average retirement age for the oldage pension was approximately 58.7 years for men and 57.3 years for women. Table 2: Average age of access across the retirement insurance system Age of access Men Women 1995 58.1 56.7 1996 58.2 56.7 1997 58.4 56.8 1998 58.2 56.7 1999 58.4 56.7 2000 58.5 56.8 2001 58.7 57.3 Source: Hauptverband der österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the sharper rise in unemployment in Austria was countered by measures making it easier for older workers to retire from working life. One such measure consisted of allowing workers to take early retirement. Businesses used this statutory provision to shed older workers more cheaply. The number of “early retirements” rose dramatically. At the same time, this measure created a mechanism designed to secure the basic material requirements of life for older people whose jobs were under threat and whose chances of finding new positions were poor. Possible routes to early retirement before the statutory retirement age include: • early retirement on the basis of long-term insurance contributions payment; • early retirement due to unemployment; • early retirement due to reduced capacity or incapacity for work; • partial pension. 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Old-age pension 15,334 14,566 16,864 17,865 18,114 Early retirement pension — on the basis of long-term insurance 46,516 43,550 52,703 53,637 27,556 contributions payment 28,362 27,094 34,174 33,273 21,630 — due to long-term unemployment 4,132 3,555 4,203 4,106 2,987 — partial pension 468 326 156 238 160 — due to reduced capacity for work 13,554 12,575 14,170 16,020 2,779 Invalidity pension 15,155 14,997 15,289 17,797 21,764 Widows and orphans pension 35,487 32,243 31,851 30,901 29,716 Total 112,492 105,356 116,707 120,200 97,150 Source: Hauptverband der österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger 48 Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review
Compared with the figures for 1997, in the year 2000 the number of “early” retirements taken as a percentage of all pensioned retirements rose by some 3.2%. As a result, early retirements represented around 45% of all pensioned retirements. The number of people entering the pension system on reaching the statutory retirement age, on the other hand, was only some 15%. The pension reform which came into force in October 2000 brought about a clear reduction in early retirements in 2001 of almost 50% compared to 2000. This reduced the number of early retirements as a proportion of total entries into the old-age pension system to some 28%. However, the sharp drop in early retirements in 2001 can also be explained in part by the abolition of “early retirement due to reduced capacity or incapacity for work”. While retirements in this category decreased by some 13,200 in 2001, the number of retirements on the grounds of invalidity increased by some 4,000. 2.2 2000 pension reforms The year 2000 saw pension reforms introduced within the framework of the “Pact for Older People”. The reforms comprised the following package of measures: With effect from 1 October 2000, at the start of each quarter the pensionable age for early retirement due to unemployment and on the basis of long-term insurance contributions payment and for partial retirement was increased by two months in nine equal increments until, on 1 October 2002, it had been increased by a total of 18 months. At the same time, pension reductions were increased from 2% to 3% per year for women retiring before the age of 60 and men before the age of 65. This provision increased the minimum early retirement age to 56.5 for women and 61.5 for men. Men and women who have reached these ages and have worked and paid insurance contributions for 37.5 years are able to claim early retirement on the basis of longterm insurance contributions payment. Women over 56.5 and men over 61.5 who have been unemployed for over a year can take advantage of the early retirement due to longterm unemployment option. In addition, women and men who have reached the ages of 56.5 and 61.5 respectively and fulfil the criteria for early retirement on the basis of long-term insurance contributions payment can switch to a partial pension. A partial pension is a pension received in addition to paid employment. Paid employment in addition to the partial pension is limited to 28 hours per week or 70% of the number of hours last worked. A further measure included in the 2000 pension reforms was the abolition of early retirement on the grounds of reduced capacity for work. In financial terms, the aim of the reform measures was to halve the 2.2 million growth in federal government pensions expenditure forecast for 2003. 2.3 Labour market measures accompanying the pension reforms In addition to restricting early entry into the pension system, the “Pact for Older People” includes a range of measures designed to cushion cases of hardship caused by the pension reforms and to prevent older people from being pushed out of the labour market. Partial retirement Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review 49 Trends The partial retirement regulation is designed to give older workers the opportunity to reduce their working hours without missing out on pension income and entitlement to unemployment benefits and health insurance payments. Under the partial retirement regulation businesses are allowed to reach the following agreements with older employees: women over 50 and men over 55 may reduce their working hours to 40%-60% of their original working hours and continue to receive, including a top-up from the Labour Market Service, between 70% and 80% of their former income. Employees’ contributions for health, pension and unemployment insurance continue to be paid by the Labour Market Service at the same level. The number of hours worked prior to the reduction and all pay increases must also be taken into account in calculating the level of payment. In addition, the employer also receives subsidies from the Labour Market Service. This partial retirement payment can be claimed for up to 6.5 years. The application period is limited until 31 December 2003. Originally, for each “new case” of partial retirement, businesses had to take on an unemployed person as a replacement (for at least the number of hours per week of the reduction). These restrictive conditions were dropped in the amended legislation of October 2000. Since then the number of Austrians on partial retirement has risen continuously. At the end of 2002, for example, some 22,750 people were registered as partially retired, compared to a figure of approximately 10,000 in December 2001. This scheme will continue to run until the end of 2003 and its extension will depend upon the prospects for its continued funding. Training allowance The training allowance payable during training and unpaid leave has been made more attractive for workers over 45 who can now receive the training allowance at the same rate as unemployment benefit. Training leave is permitted for a maximum of one year, with the minimum period being reduced from six to three months. This rule will remain in force until the end of December 2003. Reward/penalty system The incentive for businesses to recruit people over the age of 50 is to be strengthened by the complete abolition of the employer’s contribution to unemployment insurance. Previously, an employer received a 50% discount for employing people over the age of 50. At the same time, the basis for calculating the penalty (one-off payment payable on severance of an employee) for a person over 50 who had been employed for at least ten years was doubled. Employment promotion measures Under the “Pact for Older People”, central government spending on employment promotion measures targeting women over 45 and men over 50 has been significantly increased. These measures comprise: • grants for specific job-related integration assistance to businesses and institutions; • project-based grants for non-profit-making employment projects; • not-for-profit temporary employment agencies. These grants take the form of wage subsidies, for limited periods only, of up to two thirds of wage and non-wage labour costs incurred.
Page 1 and 2: Employment & European Social Fund E
Page 3 and 4: European Employment Observatory Rev
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents Policies Overall
Page 7 and 8: AUSTRIA The programme of the Austri
Page 9 and 10: FINLAND Essential changes to legisl
Page 11 and 12: At least one quarter of the members
Page 13 and 14: in the event of a third and subsequ
Page 15 and 16: of active labour-market policy, as
Page 17 and 18: Training Networks Programme The Tra
Page 19 and 20: Subsequently, the provisions concer
Page 21 and 22: a strengthening and revitalisation
Page 23 and 24: workers into the labour market as w
Page 25 and 26: This reinforced targeting and resul
Page 27 and 28: BELGIUM The Occupational Immersion
Page 29 and 30: Agreement on converting 10,000 subs
Page 31 and 32: outplacement procedure, its duratio
Page 33 and 34: Integration agreements Another impo
Page 35 and 36: and local job and volunteering oppo
Page 37 and 38: FINLAND Preliminary information on
Page 39 and 40: BELGIUM Harmonisation and simplific
Page 41 and 42: • Returning migrants Eligibility
Page 43 and 44: Playing the generation game: an ove
Page 45 and 46: workers, who have either exited the
Page 47: e) Finland’s comprehensive approa
Page 51 and 52: Table 4: Activity quotas by age and
Page 53 and 54: Table 6: Length of unemployment by
Page 55 and 56: 4Prospects In view of the demograph
Page 57 and 58: and is exempted from the obligation
Page 59 and 60: The Government is also addressing t
Page 61 and 62: permanente, 97-124 Desmet, R. and J
Page 63 and 64: Table 4: Breakdown by age of older
Page 65 and 66: Figure 1: Gender gap in the activit
Page 67 and 68: Figure 5: Effective and statutory r
Page 69 and 70: 3. Recent trends in policies As alr
Page 71 and 72: 3.3 Labour market programmes for el
Page 73 and 74: Figure 1: Population aged 15 and ov
Page 75 and 76: Table 3: Labour market transition r
Page 77 and 78: companies. One of these projects wa
Page 79 and 80: Table 2: Projection of the economic
Page 81 and 82: Table 8: Numbers entering Early Ret
Page 83 and 84: Figure 1: Rate of access to trainin
Page 85 and 86: Germany 1 Introduction As far back
Page 87 and 88: Figure 3: Potentially economically
Page 89 and 90: Figure 5: Take-up of early-retireme
Page 91 and 92: Figure 8: Average amounts paid unde
Page 93 and 94: 64.5% (Hain/Tautz 2001: 365) withou
Page 95 and 96: Table 6: Collectively agreed workin
Page 97 and 98: Strukturbruch und Arbeitsmark-tentw
Page 99 and 100:
men (Figure 3). In clear contrast w
Page 101 and 102:
Figure 5: Unemployment rates, males
Page 103 and 104:
More recent data, provided by Euros
Page 105 and 106:
pensions retracted to normal levels
Page 107 and 108:
Ireland 1. Introduction This Paper
Page 109 and 110:
Table 3: Labour force trends, 1991-
Page 111 and 112:
Table 4: Employment by age across s
Page 113 and 114:
Occupational pensions There are als
Page 115 and 116:
Italy 1. Introduction The EU offici
Page 117 and 118:
Table 7: Activity rates (age 55-64)
Page 119 and 120:
Table 10: Forecasts of employment r
Page 121 and 122:
should take the territorial imbalan
Page 123 and 124:
2. Statistical Data 5 Number of pen
Page 125 and 126:
4.2 Measures to encourage older wor
Page 127 and 128:
6. Conclusions With regard to keepi
Page 129 and 130:
level. No taxes and social premiums
Page 131 and 132:
edundancy scheme by employers. The
Page 133 and 134:
uittreding: early retirement) schem
Page 135 and 136:
Figure 4: Dependency and ageing ind
Page 137 and 138:
Figure 8: Percentage of working age
Page 139 and 140:
Figure 11: Average age of workers l
Page 141 and 142:
Figure 2: percentage change between
Page 143 and 144:
Figure 4: Figure 5: 25 20 15 10 0 -
Page 145 and 146:
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Figu
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However, this measure does not cove
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Table 1(a): Employment rate, men, 5
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Figure 3(b): Main Source of income
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4. Policies to stimulate active age
Page 155 and 156:
Appendix Table A1(a): Participation
Page 157 and 158:
Venta • Salg • Verkauf • Pvl
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