Early retirement still popular

I lead a research team working on age and employment issues at the University of Cambridge. Despite many reports over the last 15 years on the implications of demographic ageing for labour markets early retirement remains popular among governments, employers and older people themselves. Ambitious European targets on the employment of older workers are unlikely to be met. On the one hand European governments sign up to these targets, yet policies aimed at the inclusion of older workers coexist with ones aimed at their exclusion. Our research also shows that even among 'best practice' companies, when push comes to shove, early retirement remains a popular management tool. European workers, expectations raised by decades of early retirement, are reluctant to work for longer, and react angrily when they feel their rights are being threatened. One area of study for us is workplaces as we believe that workplace barriers have been neglected. We have undertaken a number of organisational case studies in recent years. Some findings may be of interest:

• Awareness of the financial implications of retirement is often low among non-managers. 
• A significant minority of employees have thought little about what they are going to do in retirement.
• Early retirement is often the preferred option by some distance amongst staff. Some kind of gradual retirement is much less popular, and few staff want to work on to normal retirement age or beyond.
• Analysis of our survey data has shown that a lack of flexible employment opportunities and a lack of recognition for good performance are associated with an increased propensity for an employee to state a preference for early retirement.
• Many of those we have surveyed have a ‘conventional’ view of retirement transitions.  The vast majority are not interested in the option of downshifting (i.e. dropping a grade or two or transfer to a post with less responsibility before retirement).  However, the majority are interested in reducing the hours they work prior to retirement.
• A stereotype concerning older workers is that they are not interested in training.  Yet one of our surveys found that training and skill needs were important to the vast majority of staff aged 45 or over (90 per cent).
• Yet when asked whether their needs were being met, the majority of respondents (69 per cent) replied in the affirmative regarding training and skill needs, but the opposite was the case regarding career development, with just over a third (36 per cent) stating that their needs were being met. The majority of respondents also felt that they received insufficient support in terms of managing their careers, with only 28 per cent stating that their needs were being met. 

I hope this contributes to the discussion.

-- Dr. Philip Taylor, Executive Director, Cambridge Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing, University of Cambridge

Comments

[Neil Fiorenza]

Great insight. In some countries early retirement is very popular, like in South Korea. This presents a unique problem because of the retirement of these experienced workers that some companies are only left to the amateurs. The government there is trying to convince people to retire at 60 but it seems early retirees are having a field day.