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09/09/2010

With fewer babies being born and people living longer, it has long been known that German society is graying, and fast. But a new state-commissioned study published on Wednesday showed that lifestyles are adjusting to that fact.

The Family Ministry's "German Age Survey" found that old people are working longer. The study showed that between 2002 and 2008, the average retirement age rose from 62 to 63. Additionally, one-third of 60-year-olds are still working.

The theme of the study is timely. In coming years, the official retirement age is set to rise from 65 to 67 in Germany, part of a bid to offset future worker shortages due to the country's sluggish birthrate, which is among the lowest in Europe.

Family Minister Kristina Schröder said the statistics heralded the start of a trend and warned that bosses needed to take account of increasing demographic pressure, saying "companies cannot allow themselves to let good staff leave."

'Goldmine'

Despite a pending shortfall of employees, the study showed that working culture still has to shift. In total, 11 percent of those surveyed said they had faced age-based discrimination in the workplace.

The report also prompted talk of a new way to ease pressure on the nation's cradle-to-grave welfare system: encouraging pensioners to engage in voluntary work in the care sector. The study found that 28 percent of those asked wanted to get involved in voluntary work -- something that Schröder said should be encouraged to help the growing numbers of sick and needy among the elderly. "That is a goldmine we want to uncover," she said.

But the rising retirement age, however necessary, remains a political landmine. In France, a plan to lift the official retirement age to 62, from a current age of 60, has triggered massive protests, with more than 1 million people taking to the streets this week.

But the German press takes a pragmatic view of the emerging trend towards working longer. Assuming that people would continue to spend a larger chunk of their lives in the office or factory, editorialists warn that more needs to be done to adjust work culture to its new, grayer reality.

The center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Even if we succeed in incorporating older people into the working world of the 21st century, it will not compensate for the effect of the declining birth rate. The potential work force will sink by 6 million by 2030. We still need a plan on how to make up the shortfall."

"In the future there will have to be fewer young people failing to finish school or work training and joining the ranks of the long-term unemployed. Immigrants living here will have to be given extra support, and face certain demands from society, so that they have better chances in the labor market. It is also necessary to ease the path for immigrants and, as in Canada, to create a points system which can rate the qualifications of newcomers. Qualified immigrants won't solve the workforce shortage, but any small improvements will help. Society is changing fast. Germany cannot afford to play off immigrant workers against their German counterparts. Nor can bosses glorify youth."

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

"Germans are stopping work later, the government-commissioned study showed. But is that a good or a bad piece of news? For some this means a more fulfilled lifetime, for others, it implies the extension of a scourge and a hardship -- the erosion of free time."

"Amongst the good news is that life enjoyment is on the increase and finishing your working life by no means spells the end of your productive years. ... The bad news, however, is that a good third of those who have finished their working life have justifiable fears about poverty in their old age."

The left-leaning Tageszeitung writes:

"Germans are happy, that's how it looks at first glance. Some 60 percent rate their standard of life as good or very good, according to the latest age study, which questioned those aged 40 to 85. But the details of the study show how German society is eroding into two camps: the privileged and the disadvantaged."

"The economic gap has psychological impacts. By no means is it just the poor who are worried about their future -- many rich people are also uncertain. The age survey also shows what medical studies have already flagged: Inequality imposes stress on society, and affects every social group."

"But the government is reacting helplessly to its own study: It recommends that those with few qualifications should invest more in private retirement funds. Unfortunately, they omit to explain exactly where these low-wage earners are supposed to get the extra money from."