DN Debate. Great opportunity to get more people over 65 years of age to work on

There is a great shortage of labour in the day, and the trend seems to continue in the future. The public employment service showed recently that within the next ten years will be needed an addition of about 485.000 employed to not the strain on the welfare system will be too large. It is certainly a challenge, but as we far can meet if we manage to take advantage of tomorrow's employment potential of the population between 65-74 years.

Based on the findings of the report ”Can seniors work longer?”, written by Lisa Laun, phd in economics, and Mårten Palme, professor of economics, on behalf of the Delegation of senior labour and released today, we estimate the employment potential in these age groups to more than 800,000 people in 2030. To not take advantage of the potential of seniors is an unsustainable waste of society's resources and run the risk of eroding pensions.

Several audits and reports show that the public pension is increasingly difficult to reach up to a level of at least 60 per cent of the previous salary (final salary), which was the objective of the 1994 pension reform. If nothing is done, the public pension to crawl down to the 40-45 per cent for genomsnittsinkomsttagare who were born in the 1970s or later.

People need to have the opportunity to acquire a long working life. To be able to contribute and be utilised in the workplace is positive for the individual.

The lower and lower pensions is mainly due to life, but not the workplace, has to become longer. The pension we earn in the world of work is turned out on more years, which lowers the månadspensionen compared with the previous salary.

To get more people to work longer is in theory a simple problem to solve by raising the age limits for retirement. The reality offers, however, larger trials. People must have the opportunity to acquire a long working life. To be able to contribute and be utilised in the workplace is positive for the individual. The bad and the backbreaking work, and needs to be reformed, and people who no longer have the energy to work must be able to leave the workplace with dignity. It is a part of the welfare system.

the report examines the Laun and the Palme about the changes in the population with respect to health, environment and education can explain the trend in labour force participation over time.

at the same time as health has improved and the level of education has increased, have the older men's labour force participation rates varied greatly over time. In the beginning of the 1960s, 85 per cent of men between 60 and 64 years in the labour force. The corresponding proportion in the age group 65-69 years was 53 per cent. Just before the turn of the millennium had labour force participation plummeted down to 55% and 18% for the respective age group. Then turned it off and 2016 had labour force participation increased to 75% for men in the age group of 60-64 years and to 26 per cent in the age group of 65-69 years. But labour force participation is still lower compared to what it was in the 1960s, despite the fact that older men today have much better health.

from 35 to 68 per cent in the age group of 60-64 years, and from 15 to 19 per cent in the age group of 65-69 years. Participation of women can with great probability be explained by improvements when it comes to their health, working environment and level of education, but it is also the result of an active policy for equality between women and men. The relationship for men is rather the reverse between the years 1963 and 1999.

The unclear linkages of the men's labour force participation, which declined when the health became better and better seems rather hang together with the norms and values around how long you should work and the legal framework than with vital statistics relating to health, education and the work environment. Earlier, there were, for example, extensive early retirement possibilities, both for health reasons and for labour market reasons. It is not inconceivable that women's increased participation in the labour market may have done that men did not need to work as long as before. However, men's higher level of education have contributed to the increase in labour force participation in the 2000s, even if reduced opportunities for early retirement seem to have had greater significance.

, a potential that in our opinion will be invaluable to protect and develop welfare.

What can we do to see beyond a couple of födelsesiffror and instead focus on people's skills and experience? What prevents people to work higher up in age? Health, employer prejudice, poor work environment, lack of competitiveness, laws and regulations, or values in ourselves and in our surroundings?

It is a central issue for both pensions for sustainable well-being. This is the background to Pensionsgruppen, with the representatives of the parties who are behind the pensionsöverenskommelsen, has taken the initiative to a delegation of senior labor – in order to support the work for a longer and more sustainable employment.

These questions should we in the delegation, the focus of the coming years. ”Can seniors work longer?” is the first of approximately 30 short reports in the next 1.5 years continuously will be published and be available on our website seniorarbetskraft.see.

in Order to be able to maintain a good welfare and to safeguard the security of those who actually do not have got a better health and longer life, we all need to change attitudes to employment, age limits and the senior workforce. Anyone can do not a longer working life, but at the age is an all midrange dimensions of how we manage the workplace. We need to adapt our planning horizon for a longer working life, not only during the later part of the working life, and even change the image of how we see our own and others ' opportunities for a longer working life.

All who can and want to work longer should also have the opportunity to do it. Everything else is in the long run, impossible and harmful for both pensions as a society.

labour force participation is still lower compared to what it was in the 1960s, despite the fact that older men today have significantly better health, write the authors.