ISA: Employment among the elderly is increasing! Cause: emigration and low pensions

Retirees are increasingly engaging in the labor market, filling the gap left by young people who have emigrated.

Data from ISA show that year after year, the 65+ age group is increasing both its participation in the labor market and its employment rate.

In 2024, the employment rate for people over 65 reached 25.0%, compared to just 17.6% in 2023. This represents a significant increase of 7.4 percentage points in only one year.

Part of this increase can be explained by longer life expectancy, but also by the economic need to remain in the labor market due to low pensions and insufficient savings for old age.

The rise in the employment rate for pensioners from 2023 to 2024 is greater than in all other age categories.

For example, the working-age group 15–64 years had an employment rate of 68.6% in 2024, an increase of only 1.7 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the employment rate among young people aged 25–29 increased by 5% between 2023 and 2024.

The continuous growth of this indicator for the 65+ age group may also signal a trend that will deepen in the future, due to demographic changes as the population structure is rapidly shifting in favor of older ages.

The increase in employment among the elderly began to strengthen after the pandemic, when emigration flows started to rise again, leaving gaps in the labor market.

On one hand, the vacancies left by young people in the workforce, and on the other hand, low pensions, are increasingly pushing retirees to continue working.

Post-retirement work is present across all sectors, including the public sector.

In the country’s regions, many retirees still work in education, healthcare, and other sectors because there are not enough young people to replace them. At the same time, the labor market has become less attractive for younger generations.

During the period from October to December 2024, according to data from the Labor Force Survey, unemployment among young people with higher education had increased compared to 2023.

Developments in the labor market indicate that Albania is facing a new challenge: integrating the elderly into the workforce.

“KORÇA BOOM”