They are going to retire later than ever, but nobody wants to hire them

In Spain, the employment situation of the workers over 50 years It has become especially worrying, since they represent an increasing part of registered unemployment. At the same time, the investment of the demographic pyramid forces to extend work life delaying The retirement age to guarantee the Pension sustainability.

In other words, the labor market is cornering workers over 55, between chronic strike and a more and more distant retirementwhich only adds tension to the state coffers.

Retire later. Statistics and projections on the population coincide: Spain must increase the ordinary retirement age if you want to avoid the collapse of its pension system. According to A study of the BBVA and IVIE Foundation, the aging of the population and the delay in the incorporation into the labor market of young people will force retirement to delay even 71 years due to the fall of active contributors and the progressive increase in pensioners.

The OECD too This diagnosis reaffirmspointing out that the employment rate will fall 10.3% from here to 2060 if measures such as the regularization of immigrants that complement young people, or the greatest labor integration of workers over 55 years. It is precisely in this second aspect where the focus would be to be focused more urgently.

Less young, more seniors. According to Official datathose over 50 already suppose approximately 47% of the unemployment recorded in Spain, which represents more than 1.14 million unemployed people in that stretch of age. On the other hand, in percentage terms, this group has a 10.35%unemployment rate. The data seems contradictory since the age segment that brings together 47% of the total unemployment, only records a unemployment rate of just over 10%. We have the explanation in the demographic pyramid.

Such and as he clarified The economistthis range of over 50 years has gone from having 3.8 million active workers at 8.1 million in recent years due to the aging of the templates. Hence its unemployment rate seems less.

In contrast, the range of younger workers has a lower volumealthough it suffers a higher unemployment rate. The latest Active Population Survey (EPA) sample That those under 25 have an unemployment rate exceeding 26.53%, but total around 451,000 unemployment workers, that is, less than half than those over 50.

More senior unemployed. These data leave us a photo in which there are less young people entering the labor market, but more and more employees of more than 50 years excluded, which generates a scenario of labor shortage.

The Official reports of the Ministry of Labor point to the lack of digital qualification and the difficulties in the recalification of those over 45 as the main barriers to senior employment, especially in sectors such as banking, industry or large technological ones, where template adjustment processes They have focused In older workers. The INE figuresThey confirm that the group of over 55 years has doubled its weight in the labor market in the last fifteen years, but its vulnerability to long -term unemployment and its expulsion of professional training processes has also increased.

Retirees at 55. The direct consequence of this doors closure is that a good part of Those over 55 years old They end up touring a path that combines periods of unemployment, subsidies and, ultimately, early retirement or involuntary.

According to the SEPE, the reality is that the State assumes, several years in advance, the costs of these subsidies and subsequent retirement benefits for almost half of the current labor mass, in part because companies continue to consider someone 55 years “too old” to be productive, despite the fact that there are hardly any young people available available To take your relief In many strategic sectors.

Greater life expectancy for them. The goal of Expand working life of the workers, in addition to maintaining an active labor mass that is cited, is to balance the retirement age Regarding life expectancy. In other words, do not do without workers when they are still physical.

However, excluding workers from labor market What can and want to workonly aggravates the situation by adding an average of 10 years more the dependence of these workers of the public coffers.

In Xataka | From the “great resignation” to “great prejubilation”: the labor market loses the experience of those over 55 years

Image | Unspash (James Hose Jr)