• The pension reform was presented on Tuesday by Elisabeth Borne.

    The Prime Minister formalized the government's desire to postpone the legal retirement age to 64, instead of the current 62.

  • The executive also heavily insisted on its desire to improve the employment rate of seniors, currently far from being the majority.

  • But if we manage to make seniors work more, and for longer, don't we risk blocking the labor market for the younger generations?

In 2010, the legal minimum age for retirement was raised from 60 to 62 years old.

The new reform, presented this Tuesday by Elisabeth Borne, still wishes to shift this age to 64 years.

And again, to have the full rate, the average should rather be around 65 or 66 years old.

Indeed, this requires 43 years of contribution and the average age of entry into the labor market is 22 years in France according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In addition to these additional years, there is the will displayed by the executive to revalorize the work of the elderly.

"The employment rate of seniors in France is appalling," said Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire during the presentation.

A mantra hammered out by each minister present at this point: this reform should help to increase the hiring of seniors, which is currently very low.

A competition more fantasized than real

Only 56% of 55-64 year olds are still working, said the Minister of the Economy.

But assuming that the reform passes and works, is there not a risk of blocking access to the job market for the youngest by hiring too many seniors?

“It was believed for a long time, it was even the principle of early retirement: leaving room for other workers.

It was a failure: the unemployment rate even increased,” recalls Stéphanie Villers, macro-economist and advisor to PwC France.

And indeed, “the young and the old are not in competition.

The professions occupied by entrants to the market are not the same as those in which seniors work, which require experience and experience, ”supports Bernard Vivier, director of the Higher Institute of Labor.

Conclusion, “when seniors retire, it does not give work to young people.

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Between the young and the senior, advantage to the young

And in the event of possible rivalry over a position, for example in the event of a change of profession for an elderly person, "we must not delude ourselves about the economic reality: the young, less expensive, with a more dynamic and technophile image, will almost always be selected against a senior,” explains Stéphanie Villers.

Thus, while the employment rate for 55-64 year olds is 56%, this figure actually hides a huge disparity: it is 75.1% for 55-59 year olds and only 35.5% for 60-64 year olds, according to figures from Dares in April 2022.



Admittedly, most positions are not the same, but isn't the entire recruitment chain in danger of being delayed by five years, ultimately impacting the employment of young people?

Imagine a company: the director retires at age 65 rather than 60, the vice-director will therefore only become director at age 50 rather than at 45, the incumbent only becomes vice-director to 30 rather than 25, postponing the hiring of a new incumbent by five years.

The reality principle

But here again, Stéphanie Villers brings us back to the raw reality: “A company will seek to replace a 60-year-old director with a 45-year-old vice-director, whether this reform passes or not.

The chain will therefore not be disrupted” According to an Apec/Pôle emploi study, published in January 2022, entry into unemployment is, for 81% of senior managers, the consequence of a breach of contract at the initiative of the employer.

Study which insisted at length on the difficulty for a senior to find a job behind.

“This pension reform should have no impact on youth employment, predicts Bernard Vivier.

The problem it raises is rather the employment of the elderly, which is poorly regarded in the labor market.

“If Bruno Le Maire can complain about the employment rate of seniors in France, we must not forget that it is “only” 8% lower than that of the OECD average – 42% of the 60 -64 years old are employed.

However, most of the countries of the organization have already raised retirement to 65 – France having one of the lowest legal retirement ages at the moment – ​​which shows that the effect is far from being magic on the employment of the oldest.

In conclusion, “the labor market will remain the same,” continues Bernard Vivier.

Sometimes difficult to access for young people, and becoming more and more precarious for seniors, with an age between 30 and 50 years of almost full employment.

" Stéphanie Villers insists: " What France will have to look at is how to keep the elderly working.

Wanting full-time seniors until age 65 currently looks like an unsolvable equation.

One could imagine a democratization of part-time work from a certain age.

It is more of a challenge than a threat for the younger generations.

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