Maintien des seniors dans l’emploi en Europe. Quel bilan face au défi posé par le recul de l’âge de la retraite ?

This article takes stock of how well the main European countries have coped with the accelerated ageing of their working populations since 2008. The analysis focuses on ten countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The reforms of the pension systems carried out since the 1990s have led to a gradual increase in the average retirement age, which in turn has raised senior citizens? participation rate. This poses the question of how to keep older workers in employment, considering specific characteristics such as their age, the experience they have acquired, the obsolescence of human capital or potential deteriorations in their health, and how all this can influence their professional integration (productivity, salary and employment contract). The strategies adopted at European and national level have aimed to adapt labour markets to the needs of older workers. They have focused on the following areas in particular: lifelong vocational training, combating age discrimination, adapting working situations, age management and flexible working hours. Despite differing performances, there has been a convergence in the employment rates of older workers, with the countries that lagged significantly in 2008 experiencing the biggest increases thereafter. Nevertheless, two groups stand out: those countries that have historically been frontrunners and have maintained a certain momentum (Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) and those that are lagging behind which, despite the tendency to converge, are still flagging in terms of the employment of 60-64 year-olds (France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Austria).