Die Flexibilisierung des Rentenalters ist neben der Erhöhung des Rentenalters für Frauen und der Mehrwertsteuererhöhung ein wichtiger Bestandteil der AHV-Reform 21, der das Parlament zugestimmt hat. Nicht alle applaudieren. Zwei ZHAW-Fachleute und ihre Meinungen.
The research project on Occupational transitions after plant closure in Switzerland's manufacturing sector examines how workers overcome this critical life course event. The principal aim is to investigate whether workers find a new job, in which sector and occupation they are reemployed, whether they experience wages losses and whether their social life or psychological well-being is affected. The success of the transition into reemployment seems to depend on workers' socio-demographic characteristics such as education, occupation or age. The project therefore strives to understand who the most vulnerable individuals are. The Plant Closure Survey 2011 is an individual-level survey of about 1200 workers. It was conducted in Autumn 2011 at the Research Center for Life Course and Inequality (LINES) at University of Lausanne, Switzerland, within the National Competence Center of Research LIVES and with the financial support of the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO).
"This article examines the job prospects of displaced industrial workers in Switzerland. Based on a survey of 1,203 workers who were dismissed after their manufacturing plants closed down, we analyse the determinants of re-employment, the sector of re-employment and the change in wages. Two years after displacement, a majority of workers were back in employment: 69% were re-employed, 17% unemployed and 11% retired. Amongst re-employed workers, two thirds found a job in manufacturing and one third in services. Contrary to a common belief, low-end services are not the collecting vessel of redundant industrial workers. Displaced workers aged 55 and older seem particularly vulnerable after a plant closes down: over 30% were long-term unemployed, and those older workers who found a new job suffered disproportionate wage losses. Advanced age -- and not low education -- appears as the primary handicap after mass redundancy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
This article examines the job prospects of displaced industrial workers in Switzerland. Based on a survey of 1,203 workers who were dismissed after their manufacturing plants closed down, we analyse the determinants of re-employment, the sector of re-employment and the change in wages. Two years after displacement, a majority of workers were back in employment: 69% were re-employed, 17% un-employed and 11% retired. Amongst re-employed workers, two thirds found a job in manufacturing and one third in services. Contrary to a common belief, low-end services are not the collecting vessel of redundant industrial workers. Displaced workers aged 55 and older seem particularly vulnerable after a plant closes down: over 30% were long-term unemployed, and those older workers who found a new job suffered disproportionate wage losses. Advanced age-and not low education-appears as the primary handicap after mass redundancy.
In: Swiss political science review: SPSR = Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft : SZPW = Revue suisse de science politique : RSSP, Band 25, Heft 1, S. 95-100
How does plant closure affect the employment and well-being of displaced workers? This article presents the results of two surveys of workers at five manufacturing plants two and 11 years after mass layoffs. After two years, two-thirds of displaced workers had been re-employed, one in five workers was still unemployed, and one in 10 workers had retired. A decade after the plant closures, unemployment had fallen below 5%. Overall, post-displacement outcomes in Switzerland were more favourable than in other European plant closures. However, age disparities loomed large. Older workers struggled to find new jobs and often had to accept large wage cuts and unstable jobs. In particular, many workers in their late forties and early fifties were hit hard as they were too young to benefit from early retirement, but too old to start over.
AbstractObjectivesRecent trends, such as changes in pension systems or cohort differences in individual resources, have altered the face of retirement transitions. Little is known about how these trends have affected older people's life satisfaction around retirement age in the past decades. In this study, we investigated how levels and changes in life satisfaction before and after retirement changed over historical time in Germany and Switzerland.MethodsWe used longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel Study and the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) from 2000 to 2019. Level, preretirement change, and short- and long-term change in life satisfaction (0–10) after retirement were predicted by year of retirement (2001–2019) in a multigroup piecewise growth curve model.ResultsWe found improvements in levels of life satisfaction and preretirement changes in life satisfaction with historical time in both countries. Furthermore, we found that unlike in Switzerland, short-time changes in life satisfaction across retirement improved over historical time in Germany.DiscussionOur findings imply that life satisfaction trajectories around retirement age have improved over the last 20 years. These findings may be explained by general improvements in the health and psychosocial functioning of older people. More research is needed to show for whom these improvements are stronger or weaker and if they will be maintained in a changing retirement landscape.
AbstractWe examine how type of diagnosis, educational trajectories and educational qualifications affect the employment prospects of young adults with mental disorders. We draw on a novel dataset based on data from the Swiss Federal Social Insurance Office. Our analysis shows that individuals with mental disorders that typically have an onset in early childhood, those who experience educational trajectories including special needs education, and those attaining higher levels of qualification are more likely to be employed in early adulthood.
AbstractIn response to the rising financial pressure on old-age pension systems in industrialised economies, many European countries plan to increase the eligibility age for retirement pensions. We used data from Sweden to examine whether (and if so, how) retirement after age 65 – the eligibility age for basic pension – compared to retiring earlier affects older adults' (between ages 70 and 85) cognitive functioning. Using a propensity score matching (PSM) approach, we addressed the selection bias potentially introduced by non-random selection into either early or late retirement. We also examined average and heterogeneous treatment effects (HTEs). HTEs were evaluated for different levels of cognitive stimulation from occupational activities before retirement and from leisure activities after retirement. We drew from a rich longitudinal data-set linking two nationally representative Swedish surveys with a register data-set and found that, on average, individuals who retire after age 65 do not have a higher level of cognitive functioning than those who retire earlier. Similarly, we did not observe HTEs from occupational activities. With respect to leisure activities, we found no systematic effects on cognitive functioning among those working beyond age 65. We conclude that, in general, retirement age does not seem to affect cognitive functioning in old age. Yet, the rising retirement age may put substantial pressure on individuals who suffer from poor health at the end of their occupational career, potentially exacerbating social- and health-related inequalities among older people.