Statistics in Focus: Population and social conditions. The employment of seniors in the European Union. 2006.15

Abstract

In 2005, in the EU-25, 22.2 million people aged 55-64 were in employment, 1.6 million were unemployed and 28.5 million were inactive. Increasing the participation of seniors in the labour market is part of the Lisbon Strategy, which sets out the strategic goal “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”. In March 2001, the Stockholm Council set up the following target: the employment rate of seniors (i.e. people aged 55 to 64 years) should be raised to 50% by 2010 in the European Union.