Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: - HelpAge International

Chapter 2: A fresh look at evidence – Income security in old age
According to ILO calculations, 112 in sub-Saharan Africa
men are able to reduce their economic activity rates
only slightly as they get older – by up to 20 per cent.
Women nearly everywhere play essential roles in old
age, doing work that is not recognized by labour-force
surveys as “employment”, such as caregiving, street
selling, child- minding and running the household for
other members of their families to enable them to seek
paid employment.
In Asia and Latin America, participation of older age
groups is lower than in Africa but it is still high by
international standards. In countries such as Ecuador,
Honduras, and Paraguay, about half of the older
population are working or looking for a job. 113 A large
number of them are engaged in the informal economy
and are mostly self-employed. In Paraguay, for example,
88 per cent of older people who work have jobs in the
informal economy. 114 For most of them, the formal
age of retirement has no special meaning and, due
to the nature of self-employed work, they are likely to
continue working as long as they feel they have the
capacity to do so.
Increasing older persons’ labour
participation
New working arrangements and innovation at the
workplace can help to increase the labour-force
participation of older workers. Another option is to fight
negative stereotypes of older workers as this is a serious
obstacle to maximizing the potential of the ageing
workforce. Age-based discrimination, with regard to
recruitment, retention and retraining of workers, has
been highlighted both by official surveys and by older
persons who took part in consultations for this report.
For example, in a 2012 survey of 26,500 older people
across Europe, 21 per cent had witnessed or experienced
discrimination in the workplace because they were
perceived to be too old. 115 The 2011 ILO Global Report on
discrimination notes that there is evidence of increased
awareness and reporting of age-related discrimination. 116
In the United Kingdom, statistics from the Employment
Tribunal Service show a considerable increase in age
discrimination claims, from 972 in 2006-2007 to 2,949 in
2007-2008 and 3,801 in 2008-2009. 117
apter 2, Figure 2: Labour force participation in selected African countries, 2011
Figure 2: Labour-force participation in selected African countries, 2011
100%
80
60
40
20
Male
Male
0
Female Female
Source: International Labour Organization,
LABORSTA Source: ILO, (2011). Laborstat, 2011
Ghana
Central African
Republic
Malawi
Uganda
Kenya
Senegal
Nigeria
Burkina Faso
60–64
65+
60–64
65+
60–64
65+
60–64
65+
60–64
65+
60–64
65+
60–64
65+
60–64
65+
56 Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: A Celebration and A Challenge