Employment Pattern after Retirement and its Evaluation - An empirical analysis of the continued employment system (Japanese)

In this paper, we analyzed micro data on retirement and reemployment, provided by RIETI, and we evaluated the continued employment system after initial retirement from the standpoint of elderly employees. According to our results, those who chose the continued employment system have job change experiences when they were young. In addition, continuing employees are forced to accept lower levels of job satisfaction, a wide range of wage cuts, and deterioration of treatment in exchange for employment stability. The motivation of continuing employees to work after age 65 is also significantly lower than for other workers. Among continuing employees, wages per hour and job satisfaction levels were high in professionals, and job satisfaction of continuing employees who work as advisors was relatively high. On the other hand, continuing employees are reluctant to change their jobs, wage profiles, or mandatory retirement age. For the future elderly employment system, it is necessary for continuing employees to accumulate specialized skills and make use of them until they retire, by entering new professionals or acting as mentors to young workers. Also, considering the low job satisfaction and the low willingness to work after age 65 among continuing employees, it is unclear whether the policy of raising the legal age of continued employment over age 65 will improve the elderly employment rate. This paper suggests that it is important for companies to provide different working styles to allow for the employment of continuing workers, whose individual capabilities and other characteristics must be taken into account.