Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) – Germany has the highest proportion of older workers of any European Union country, official data showed Tuesday, with almost a quarter of those in employment aged between 55 and 64. Roughly 9.8 million people — around 24 percent — of the 40.9 million people in work in Europe’s biggest economy were in this age bracket in 2024, according to statistics agency Destatis. This compared to an EU average of around one fifth.
“A key reason for the high proportion of older workers in Germany is that the population is increasingly ageing,” said Destatis in a statement. The agency also noted that people were retiring later in Germany, which has a population of almost 84 million, as the statutory retirement age rises gradually to 67 by 2029. The average retirement age for women and men was 64.7 years in 2024, compared to 63 for women and 63.1 for men in 2004, it said.
Experts believe it is crucial for Germans to work longer as the population ages, which is putting a huge strain on the pension system. Bagso, an umbrella group for associations that promote the rights of older Germans, said however there was still too little being done to encourage older people to take up work. “The fact that older employees in particular perceive themselves as especially disadvantaged among all population groups because of their age is certainly not an invitation to voluntarily continue working after retirement age,” the group’s chairwoman Regina Goerner told AFP. “For decades, companies have been investing too little in the further training of this group.”
In 2024, Italy had the second-highest proportion of workers in the 55 to 64-year-old age bracket in the EU after Germany, at 23 percent, according to Destatis, citing European data. Malta by contrast had the lowest proportion of older workers in the workforce, at around 11 percent, it said.
© 2024 AFP
