It is rightly said that young people are the future of a countrybut seniors better ensure that future within the job market. In addition, in Spain, in light of its demographic pyramidwithout them, the future of economic activity will be highly compromised.
However, the study of the labor market situation in Spain is not very edifying for the elderly 55 years, compared to Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Portugal.
Before showing the results of the II Senior Talent Map prepared by the research center ageingnomicsit is important to highlight that, Faced with widespread myths, the older They don’t take jobs to the youngestbut they occupy some that they would never cover due to lack of training or experience or due to their insufficient number.
According to this study, Spain has one of the highest senior unemployment rates in Europe. Half of its elderly unemployed are long-term and, furthermore, it is the country with the highest number of elderly female unemployment. Furthermore, together with Portugal, Spain has the highest number of low-skilled jobs.
The distance in activity rates with Sweden, the leading country in employment data for senior workersis almost 20 points.
In Spain there are fewer seniors working than in the Nordic country, but also fewer than in Germany and Portugalwhich means that, on average, the Spanish work almost three years less than the Portuguese, four less than the Germans and are seven years behind the Swedes.
Seniors and entrepreneurs
Nevertheless, Spanish seniors are the Europeans who are more willing to undertake (by chance or by necessity) and, with Poland at the forefront, Spain is one of the countries where self-employment is more widespread in this collective.
A) Yes, close to a million seniors, who already represent one in three Spanish self-employedsee self-employment as a way to stay active.
The report focuses on how Spain could achievefor example, the Sweden senior employment rate (85% among workers between 55 and 59 years old), well above the nearly 65% Spanish, and thus achieve gains measured by the GDP of between five and ten points.
In a country where half of the newly unemployed are seniors and one in three unemployed is over 50 years of ageit is urgent to take action on the matter.
Below are some of our recommendations:
- Establishment of a great country pact to promote senior employment that nips in the bud the waste of talent of the greatest Spaniards.
- Approval of an organic law against working ageism that improves the formula to reconcile pension and work, penalizes early retirement and early retirement and promotes an express recognition of the rights of generational equality
- measurement and publicationby the companies, the data on its social impact not only in environmental and gender aspects but also in what concerns generational diversity.
- Promotion, from the administrations, of self employment and entrepreneurship of the seniors through tax discounts, public aid and reductions in the self-employed quotas.
- Promotion, from public institutions and companies, of the continuous training of workers.
Besides, senior workers themselves need to become aware that, as attractive as raising the official retirement age may seem, it is financially unfeasible and detrimental to your physical and emotional health stop working with more than thirty years ahead of life.
Promote the presence on the public scene of senior workers who continue to contribute to societyd with his work in fields such as science, the civil service, teaching or entrepreneurship, would help in the task of giving a new vision of this vital stage in which paid work must continue to be present.
Raphael Puyol, Professor of Human Geography. President of UNIT, UNIR – International University of La Rioja ; Alfonso JimenezAssociate professor, European University Y Inaki Ortega CachonProfessor of Business Management, JOIN – UnoInternational University of La Rioja
This article was originally published on The Conversation. read the original.
