This is one of the subjects on which the executive expects proposals from the social partners at the start of the school year. Despite one of the lowest unemployment rates in the population -5.7%-, the employment of seniors remains one of the weak points of the French labor market. In 2022, only 56.9% of 55 to 64 year olds were in employment, against 62.4% on average at European level, reveals a new study by Dares published on Wednesday. This score, certainly in continuous increase for several years, places Paris in a less than glorious 17th place out of 27 within the old continent.
Behind the figure of 56.9%, however, there are significant disparities between ages. Thus the employment rate, which reaches 82.5% for 25-49 year olds, remains at 76.4% for people between 55 and 59 years old. A figure within the EU average. It then drops sharply to peak at 36.2% for those aged 60 to 64, more than 12 points below the average for the old continent.
This gap can be explained by the earlier departure of French people into retirement. The employment rate curve for seniors is instructive on this point. Their presence on the labor market decreased from 1975 – the date of the first published data – until the end of the 1990s and particularly from 1983, the date on which it was possible to retire “at the full rate from the age of 60 having contributed for 37.5 years”. As a result, over the next twenty years, the employment rate of 60-64 year olds fell by 12.9 points…
Conversely, the gradual reductions in the legal retirement age, from 60 to 62, and the extension of the contribution period, have made it possible to make up for part of the accumulated delay. The 2023 reform, which is gradually pushing back the retirement age, this time from 62 to 64, should also have a real impact. Coming into force on September 1, the effects should not be felt for several years.
As a corollary, the number of seniors who are neither employed nor retired increases gradually until the age of 61 before decreasing. Still under the effect of retirements. This situation mainly affects workers and employees. Between 55 and 59 years, 29.4% of the first and 24.7% of the second are concerned, against 10.2% of managers.
Nevertheless, and like the rest of the labor market, if the situation remains perfectible, the trend is encouraging, underlines the Dares. The employment rate for seniors is “at its highest since 1975”. Better, this growth is fast. The proportion of people over 55 in work has increased by 2.5 points compared to before the crisis and by 11 points in ten years. Another source of satisfaction, the participation of older women in the labor market is close to the European average. Despite a slight gap in the employment rate against them compared to that of men – 55.5% against 58.3% – the latter is less than one point below that of the EU-56, 3%. While the gap for men is more than 10 points.
Figures that will no doubt be closely studied by the government, which increasingly refers to the employment rate to judge the improvement in the situation of the labor market. The Minister of Labor had cited Sweden as an example to follow. But with a rate of 77.3% among 55-64 year olds for the Scandinavian country, there is still a long way to go.
