Counting your quarters while dreaming of cruises or imagining yourself taking over a store to continue an activity? These two attitudes are respectable but, if in the past we could imagine early pre-retirement, the time for retirement has continued to move back since 2010 after several reforms. The pensioner landscape has changed. Thus, the employment rate of seniors has increased in ten years in France from 38% at the start of 2008 to nearly 54% at the end of 2019 – compared to 66% for the entire working population. However, if it was comparable to that of our European neighbors at the end of 2019 for 55-59 year olds (73%), it remains lower for 60-64 year olds: 34% in France, compared to 47% in France. euro zone, 56% in the United Kingdom and 63% in Germany (Trésor Eco, February 2022). And sometimes, the choice is not made between exoticism and a boutique to take over: between 55 and 61 years old, 21% of seniors (16% of 55-69 year olds) are neither employed nor retired: “this situation is often suffered, particularly for reasons of health or disability” (Insee, 2023 and 2024).
The more time passes, the more employees fear the transition to professional seniority and, above all, its consequences. “We don’t wake up one morning and say to ourselves ‘I’m a senior’. We rather say to ourselves: ‘what am I going to do today?'”, analyzes Sibylle Le Maire, founder and director of Club Landoy ( founded in 2019 on the initiative of the Bayard group and which reflects on the challenges of demographics in companies). Moreover, this notion of “senior” varies depending on the country “In the United States, it can start at age 40. . In France, it is rather from the age of 50 that we see a tipping point. It is a reality embodied by the gaze of others. The closer we get to retirement, the more senior employment declines,” she says.
“Age discrimination remains a problem in France”
In fact, 80% of those over 55 are in work compared to 49% at 61 (Insee, 2024). “The lower the qualification, the earlier the retirements. Thus, 46% of workers or low-skilled employees retire early, compared to 39% of employees and 21% of managers,” continues the expert. Difficulty and health are one explanation.
However, whatever the activity, the question of the end of career arises upstream: while at 45 years old, there is potentially still 25 years of career remaining (in the private sector, the employer cannot put the employee retirement only at age 70), 47% of 45-54 year olds say they fear for their job compared to 34% of those aged 55 and over, indicates the Ifop barometer for Club Landoy (January 2024). For 64% of respondents, it is “because they cost the company more” that seniors are more exposed to the risk of dismissal. 64% also think that with equal skills, being over 50 is a disadvantage for being hired. Finally, this panel estimates that the highest attractiveness on the job market is between 26 and 30 years old and that it begins to decline at 41 years old. “Age discrimination remains a problem in France. However, everyone will become a senior, one day or another. We cannot escape it,” comments Sibylle Le Maire. Unsurprisingly, 94% of those questioned consider it important to fight against discrimination against seniors in the workplace.
What to do with these ten years gained?
To do this, the Landoy Club wants to act “as a social catalyst to help companies build an economically sustainable and socially desirable social pact”, including an index structured around four axes: the rate of employees over 50 years old; their training rate; their mobility rate and their recruitment rate. For Sibylle Le Maire, “the age pyramid is inverting and the population is aging. This development is societal and affects the world of work: what to do with these ten additional years of life that we have gained in fifty years? And how does this time will it organize itself collectively?”
The question arises of extending working hours with “the totem of the Eldorado of retirement”. But is the current system sustainable? “I see two trends which show that people over 50 still have their place: in SMEs and mid-sized companies, there are fewer departures of seniors because we cannot afford to let them go. The labor shortage “The work has accentuated this phenomenon and in larger groups, if we have separated from seniors, they often come back as experts or consultants. The 73% of those aged 45 and over who dream of having a long career in one place (Ifop/Club Landoy) do not indicate, however, whether these other statuses which shatter the CDI are a satisfactory response to remaining in the employment of seniors, or, on the contrary, a red rag.
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