Only 8% of new hires concern people aged 55 and over, even though this age group represents around a quarter of the active population, life insurer Swiss Life indicated in a study on Thursday.
If the integration of older employees is good in Switzerland in international comparison, people who lose their job over the age of 55 often encounter difficulty finding work.
When the retirement age has increased, to 65 and over, only 16% of employers are clearly willing to hire and 28% can “rather consider it”, note the authors of the study.
Furthermore, when employers are asked the ideal retirement age for men, 46% of them indicate an age below 65. Only 15% of employers surveyed place the ideal retirement age at 66 and over. When it comes to women, the majority of employers (58%) believe that the ideal retirement age is below 65 years.
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Low willingness to commit
Half of companies note that finding qualified personnel is a difficult task. However, only 22% consider hiring older employees as a solution and 13% encourage working beyond retirement age.
However, this labor reserve is considerable, to the extent that people aged 55 to 70 represent almost a quarter of the available labor force potential.
“It is possible that in the future, a worsening of the shortage of qualified labor due to demographics will boost the labor market for those aged 55 and over, and in particular for those aged 65 and over, and that the corresponding labor force potential is further exploited,” says Andreas Christen, head of pension research at Swiss Life Switzerland.
The data is drawn from an online survey based on responses from a thousand human resources managers working in companies employing four or more people.
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