Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: - HelpAge International

Antonio Olmos/HelpAge International
From a macroeconomic perspective, what matters
most is not income or a decline in the labour force but
productivity and growth. For economies to address
the needs of a larger number of older people, they
must promote full and productive employment of the
working-age population. 108
There are various potential policy options to offset the
projected decline of the working-age population,
including migration, outsourcing, increases in fertility,
enhanced labour-force participation by young people
and women and improvements in labour productivity.
Migration and outsourcing are not likely to compensate
for population ageing and the scope for increasing
fertility is also only limited. Female labour participation
has already increased but, with adequate policy
interventions, can still be increased. Additional support
to help parents combine family and work are needed
to reduce the opportunity costs for women. Increasing
labour-force participation among older persons is
another viable policy option.
An 82-year-old rickshaw puller in Bangladesh. A large proportion of
people in developing countries continue working into old age.
Labour-force participation of
older persons
Work in old age is a complex issue. On the one hand,
growing old is associated with a range of challenges
that make it harder to earn a living, and social
protection systems have a crucial role to play here.
Poor working conditions, ill health, low job satisfaction,
pension arrangements and negative perceptions about
older workers are factors of declining labour-force
participation among older persons. On the other hand,
many older persons still have the capacity to work and
contribute to the economy.
The question of how to support individuals to remain
economically active into old age is of growing relevance
due to population ageing. In more developed countries,
this is resulting in increasing retirement ages (people
are likely to have to work for longer) and a move away
from more rigid notions of retirement. In developing
countries, a large proportion of people continue working
into old age, due to the lack of social security systems.
In many cases, people want to remain economically
active. However, in developing countries, most older
men and women continue working because they have no
access to a pension and it is the only way that they can
make ends meet. With the global financial crisis, this
is also becoming more common in developed countries.
According to the ILO, globally 47 and 23.8 per cent,
respectively, of older men and women are participating
in the labour force. 109
Most older persons in developing countries are
employed in the informal economy – that is, they are
self-employed in informal enterprises or in paid
employment in jobs without secure contracts, worker
benefits or social protection. 110 However, the scarcity of
data – in particular, data disaggregated by age – is one
of the major challenges for any analysis of the labour
market situation of older workers in these countries.
Africa is the region with the highest labour force
participation of older people. Despite some declines
recently, participation rates are high and are expected
to remain so. In the poorest parts of Africa, they are
extremely high for both men and women. For example,
in Malawi, the rate is above 95 per cent for men and
women aged 60-64 and above 90 per cent for men and
women aged 65 years and above (Figure 2). 111
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