Elise Denjean, edited by Juline Garnier 7:55 a.m., April 13, 2022

They are over-represented in long-term unemployment.

Seniors are at the heart of one of the main subjects of the presidential election: the retirement age.

After 50 years, it is difficult to find a job.

So what is in place and does it work?

Europe 1 takes stock.

ANALYSIS

This is a subject that is coming back to the fore with Emmanuel Macron's proposal to postpone the legal retirement age: the employment of seniors.

And this question: how to make the French work longer, when already a little less than half of seniors are no longer employed at retirement age?

They are over-represented in the long-term unemployment figures and it should be noted that few measures have been put in place.

Inefficient devices

An employment plan for seniors was carried out between 2006 and 2010. In particular, it had to be adopted in companies with more than 50 employees on pain of financial penalties.

But according to several specialists, the implementation of this plan was rather sloppy.

The result was therefore unsatisfactory.

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As for the senior CDDs, created during this period, they only benefited a "very limited public" estimates the Court of Auditors in its 2019 report. This even speaks quite clearly of an "abandonment of almost all of the arrangements for the employment of seniors".

Anticipating the end of your career

Overall, the common point of the systems put in place, including the generation contracts created by François Hollande then abolished in 2017, is that they arrive too late according to Anne-Marie Guillemard, sociologist specializing in aging issues. 

"Everything we did was targeted at the over 50s. This is not what should be done. You have to target on the course and therefore anticipate with a view to making work a long time and prolong active life. And so that supposes that there has been prevention well in advance. The same goes for maintaining skills. It's not at age 50 that we're going to train people who, for lack of mobility, have remained in the same job which is now at the end of its life, with obsolete skills", explains the expert.

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The two keystones of the employability of seniors are therefore occupational health to enable them to work longer and lifelong training to keep them attractive.

Two elements for which prevention has so far been completely neglected. 

The example of Finland

However, when we make the choice to prevent rather than cure, it works.

In Finland, for example, at the end of the 1990s, the country set up a major national employment plan for the over 45s.

This includes several measures and in particular the creation of a kind of public service to support companies in welcoming or keeping their seniors.

Result: the country has an employment rate for 55-64 year olds which has risen from 35 to 70% today.