Recent Trends in Retirement Policy and Practice in Europe and the USA: An Overview of Programmes Directed to the Exclusion of Older Workers and a Suggestion for an Alternative Strategy

Abstract

In all of the industrialised market economies, advancing age tends to bring with it a greater vulnerability on the labour market. A precise and universally applicable age threshold from which this increase of vulnerability can be determined to start does not exist, but most commentators do agree that between ages 40 and 45 labour market problems begin to appear, and between ages 55 and 65 they worsen considerably. The particular vulnerability of older workers can, in principle, be ascribed to the difference between their diminished capacities and employers’ requirements — usually based on the capacities of younger workers. In addition, older workers are generally less able to adapt to new requirements imposed by technological change; whilst, in terms of human capital investment, it is more “profitable” for firms to hire younger workers, because the time available for amortisation of the cost of recruitment and on-the-job training is longer.