Labour Participation Of Older People In Poland And Sweden

COMPARATIVE SOCIAL POLICY

‘Labour participation of older people in Poland and Sweden’

INTRODUCTION

Demographic projections indicate that in the coming years the proportion of retirement age population will grow, and if the official retirement age remains at its current level, the budget may not handle the rising costs of pensions. That is why extending the working lives of employees over50 years of age has become a priority area in the policies of many EU countries. In accordance with the Lisbon Strategy 2000, adopted by the EU members, one of the objectives of the European Union is to achieve the employment rate for people aged 55 –64 at a level not less than 50% (European Commission, Special Report 4/2005). In pursuing the Lisbon goals, the EU countries have introduced anumber of measures to boost the employment of people aged 55+. The outcomes of these policies have varied across the countries. In 2009, the lowest employment rate among the population in this age group was registered in Poland (32.3%) and it accounted for less than a half of the highest rate, recorded in Sweden (70.0%). (Eurostat, LFS).

Due to this huge contrast between Sweden and Poland employmentrates, I decided to compare the labour market situations of older people in these two European countries separated by the Baltic Sea. Principal objective of this report is to find out what are the reasons of this wide disparity between Swedish and Polish rates? Is that a matter of different economic and political background which has had an impact on current employment patterns? How could thehistory of the nation influence the employers’ perceptions about the employability of older people? What is the impact of the governments’ current policies in the context of achieving the Lisbon goals?

OVERVIEW

Employment patterns and their background

My analysis begins with the presentation of some statistical information available from the Eurostat database providing a table withemployment rates of people aged 55 to 64 in Poland (Table 1) and Sweden (Table 2) over the period from 1997 – 2009. Employment rate (%) is calculated by dividing the number of persons aged 55 to 64 in employment by the total population of the same age group.

Table 1: Employment rates of people aged 55 to 64 in Poland

| |1997 |1998 |
|Sweden |73.2 |66.7|
|Poland |44.3 |21.9 |

Source: Eurostat – Employment rates by sex, age groups and nationality (Labour Force Survey)
Last years of working age are one of the important problems of the Polish women. Very often the middle-aged women are the first to be fired in connection with various restructurings or simply lowering the costs of labour and production. Thesituation on the labour market often does not allow them to find a new job which is associated not only with lack of jobs but also with common stereotypes about women aged 55+. Another important factor placing Polish women at situation of particular disadvantage is that the State and employers do not take into account their second part-time work associated with running the household, raising thechildren, and caring of elderly (Holubowska, 2009).
On the other hand, in Sweden the high participation rate of older female workers had been facilitated by three significant reforms during the 1970s including individual income taxatation (1971), a major development of public childcare and elederly care facilities, and parental insurance which replaced maternity benefit in 1974. The development ofpublic child care and elderly care facilities was very significant as it meant that women, who traditionally took the main responsibility for the caring of children and elderly relatives at home, were able to go from unpaid domestic work to paid work on the labour market (Littorin, 2008).

SUMMARY

The purpose of my report has been to determine what factors influence the fact that Poland...