The Employment at Retirement Age Cluster contributes to a more precise understanding of the motives, facilitating factors and obstacles of employment beyond the standard retirement age in order to be able to specifically address the heterogeneous target groups among the 65+ age group and to attract them to the labour market to a greater extent. Employer-side and legally regulated incentive structures are also analysed and specific improvement measures are proposed with the consistent inclusion of international expertise on the one hand and the relevant stakeholder groups in Switzerland on the other.

Our research in the Employment at Retirement Age Cluster

The ageing of society is causing a significant shortage of workers available in the labour market. Net immigration, technological progress and changes in the structure of the economy and education will not be able to meet labour demand adequately. The high and still rising number of people aged 65+ also poses challenges to the stability of the pension system, especially since the number of years spent in retirement has also increased due to a significantly higher average life expectancy. For these reasons, increasing the labour force participation of older people beyond the standard retirement age is of great importance, especially in view of the fact that today more people than ever before satisfy the health and competence-related prerequisites for continued employment even after reaching retirement age. However, although labour force participation of older people is comparatively high in Switzerland up to the age of 64/65, it declines sharply among those who are older.

An occupation-specific focus is considered using the example of engineering professions, which – along with other occupational groups – are particularly affected by the shortage of skilled workers. Public events to inform and raise awareness among the public as well as to facilitate the exchange among the different stakeholders in the employment system are also an important part of this project.