Klaus Berberich endured a full nine months in retirement. Then his old employer, the automotive supplier Continental, called and asked him if he wanted to return. The decision was not difficult for him. For a good three years now, the 69-year-old has been working part-time again at the company's Regensburg site, where he was head of the electronics and brakes division before his departure.
Alexander Wulfers
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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Berberich is now contributing his expertise from decades of work in the industry. He has helped to cushion the crisis in the supply of semiconductors and is training young colleagues. His quick return to the world of work was not completely surprising. "I'm not one of those people who buy a sailboat or go on world trips," he says.
As soon as he said goodbye, it was clear to him: "I wanted to continue working." In particular, it was difficult for him to say goodbye to his colleagues. The only thing he didn't feel like applying for was – "I haven't done that for decades" – which is why the offer from his old employer came at just the right time.
What Klaus Berberich has achieved is also a result of developments on the entire labour market. Companies that have to fight for every qualified employee encounter an aging society – including a sprightly cohort of older people, many of whom no longer necessarily have to work, but still want to.
Fewer young people in the labour market
This enthusiasm for work on the part of the elderly is shaping the positive development of the European labour market. It has recovered impressively quickly from the Corona pandemic. If you look at the eurozone, the labor force has not been this large for a long time, as an evaluation by the corporate-funded think tank The Conference Board shows. If you take a closer look, you will see that it is not those who are at the beginning or in the middle of their careers who are currently pouring into the job market.
On the contrary, among 25- to 54-year-olds, there were not so many people who wanted to work, i.e. who were in work or looking for work. This group, the so-called "working population", was smaller than before the pandemic (see chart). This does not seem to change anytime soon: A significant upward trend is not discernible in the data.
The situation is quite different in a group that companies had all too often written off in the past: the elderly. The working population between the ages of 55 and 64 is now 8 percent larger than before the pandemic, according to the Conference Board study. The trend is even more extreme among those who are mostly already of retirement age – such as Klaus Berberich.
Particularly strong growth over 65 years in France
Of the 65- to 74-year-olds, there are now 19 percent more who work or are looking for work. The development in Germany is very close to the European average, explains Conference Board Chief Economist Rémi Bourgeot. The increase in the number of people over 65 was particularly strong in France, at almost 30 percent. The figure was as high as 50 percent in Spain, where all other age groups in the labor force also grew more strongly.
In December, the Federal Institute for Population Research had found a stagnation in employment in old age, but only until 2021. Such stagnation is also shown by the new evaluation by the Conference Board, but in 2022 it will go steeply upwards. So after the pandemic, many more old people want to stay in the labor market again. Does that work?
"Early retirement is on the decline," says economist Werner Eichhorst of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). This has not least to do with political incentives. It is true that steps such as the deduction-free pension at 63 could also prevent older people from working. But politicians are also doing a lot to keep them in work: Since January, for example, early retirees have been able to earn more money.