Elderly employment in the European Union: Active aging or overcoming poverty?

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to identify scale of and trends in elderly employment in the twenty seven European Union countries and to show determinants of employment in the context of active aging and overcoming poverty. The paper is based on the analysis of empirical data and a critical review of literature. Empirical data for the study are the secondary data retrieved from Eurostat, ILOSTAT and national statistics. The employment rate of people 65 years of age and older has tended to increase in the EU-27 over the period from 2011 to 2021. However, the elderly’s income situation has worsened. In a few countries that recorded a rapid growth of elderly employment, older workers continue to work in order to increase their current income. People 65+ were generally continuing to work based on a voluntary choice than a necessity to earn additional income in most of the richest EU-27 countries. Older European workers are more likely to be employees and own-account workers. At the aggregate EU-27 level, agriculture, forestry and fishing stopped to be the largest employer of people aged 65 years and more in 2021. Older EU workers have been more frequently engaged in human health and social work activities.