Globalization and the labour market situation of older workers: exploring trends, challenges and strategies for adaptation

On 11 June 2012, the Directorate-General (DG) Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission hosted the thematic event of the Mutual Learning Programme focusing on policies to extending working lives.

This discussion paper critically discusses the impact of globalization on the employment situation of older workers and its implications for designing effective future labour market and welfare policies for a sustainable reversal of early exit. For a successful reversal, the paper identifies four main challenges for national policies at the level of both 'push' and 'pull factors': (1) the need to reduce early retirement and to provide incentives for continued employment; (2) the need to invest in older workers' employability through educational measures, such as lifelong learning; (3) the need to provide incentives for employers to hire or maintain older workers, and as a cross-cutting issue across policy fields; (4) the need to consider aspects of diversity and inter-individual differences in employability and work orientation when designing active ageing policies. Against these four background objectives, the paper critically reviews the current state of the art in policies targeting older workers in European Union member states.

Edited excerpt from publication. Show less