France: Working longer takes time, in spite of reforms to raise the retirement age

Examination of the French situation from a comparative European perspective exposes the country's poor performance with regard to the employment of seniors and the prolongation of working life. Despite a recent rise in the employment rate of 55-59 year-olds, worrisome signs have appeared, such...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Australian journal of social issues 2016-01, Vol.51 (2), p.127-146
Main Author: Anne-Marie Guillemard
Format: Article
Language:
Subjects:
Age and employment
Discrimination in employment
Employment
Older people
Retirement age
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Summary:Examination of the French situation from a comparative European perspective exposes the country's poor performance with regard to the employment of seniors and the prolongation of working life. Despite a recent rise in the employment rate of 55-59 year-olds, worrisome signs have appeared, such as the steep rise in unemployment for this age category; this is indicative of the increasing vulnerability of ageing workers in the labour market. This critical analysis of twenty years of French public policies related to older workers seeks to identify the reasons for France's lag in making working life longer. The principal reason seems to be that public policies have nearly exclusively focused on increasing the supply of senior labour without adequately taking into account incentives for stimulating corporate demand for it. The many pension reforms undertaken from 2003 to 2014 have sought to lift the institutional obstacles to working longer. Accordingly, they have raised both the legal retirement age and the requisite number of quarters of contributions for entitlement to a full pension under Social Security. But effective, active labour market policies for stimulating the demand for senior labour have been lacking.
ISSN:0157-6321