While Portugal is currently scarred by rising unemployment due to the economic crisis, a report by Eurofound has revealed that 15% of Portuguese workers continue working after achieving retirement age – the highest rate within the European Union.
According to a report called ‘Income from work after retirement in the EU’, carried out by Hans Dubois and Robert Anderson and published by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), figures concerning those working after official retirement age may be underestimated, as many people do not declare their activity.
The report also highlights that in the case of Portuguese people working past their retirement age, nine out of 10 are self-employed.
Despite these figures, Portugal still faced a 5.7% drop in employment in this age group.
While Portugal still holds one of the highest rates in the EU, the national economic crisis and systematic extinction of jobs make it harder for seniors to stay active in the employment market.
The political relevance of the report is considered by its authors as “irrefutable”, with all policy guidelines from the European Commission gravitating towards increasing the tax-paying time of the population, in order to guarantee sustainability of the pension system and the country’s economic growth.
The Eurofound, calling this new wave of workers “worker-retirees”, claims the class is expanding, mostly with professionals between 65 and 69 years of age working for the same company as they did prior to reaching retirement age.
The report estimates that about a fifth of “worker-retirees” continue working out of necessity and in order to sustain their monthly expenses.
