| Abstract: An investigation by the Ministry of Labour (Dares department), which was
carried out in 1996 among some 3,000 employees aged 60 or older, confirms that the time
gap between stopping working and entering retirement is increasing. Thus "for an
increasing number of working people, retirement is preceded by a period of unemployment,
early retirement, or non-employment. Indeed, only 54% of all those born between 1932 and
1936 worked right up to retirement, compared with 63% of those born in preceding
years." Women are particularly affected by unemployment at the end of their working
lives. At the same time, they are largely excluded from leaving the job market through
early retirement or some sort of pre-retirement scheme. As a result there are more men
(13%) in pre-retirement or early retirement than women (7%). "Almost 10% of the women
experience a period of unemployment before retirement, making it an almost exclusively
female phenomenon, a form of 'unemployment out of hopelessness'." The investigation
also makes it clear that the Opportunities of workers who experienced unemployment at least once
before they were 50 being unemployed again before the reach retirement is twice as high as
for those who did not, and that unstable employment conditions (short-term contracts, work
contracts, limited job contracts) treble these Opportunities. Here too women are particularly
disadvantaged, since they in particular suffer from unstable employment conditions
[source: Dares, Premières Synthèses, n 05.1, February 2000.]" |
