Swedes work longer

More and more Swedes continue working after the age of 65, and many feel positive about prolonging their working life.  

  • Swedes work longer and like it, too.
  • More and more Swedes continue working after the age of 65, and many feel positive about prolonging their working life. Negative attitudes against older people at work places, however, pose serious obstacles.
    Since 2004, the number of employed people older than 64 has increased by close to 65,000, which means there are 137,000 older people in the job market today. But the willingness and the energy to continue working differ between the sexes, various parts of the country, work fields and level of education, according to a report from the retirement company AMF.

  • Stockholm: One in five over 65 works
    In Stockholm's county almost one in every five citizens between 65 and 74 is working. In Norrbotten the percentage is only 10. This difference may be explained by the different infrastructure.
    “When we asked retirees about their feelings when they retired and if they felt it was the right time, many told us they’d have liked to continue working—that they retired for other reasons: They had some pains, they’d been unemployed and they had also met with the expectation that they ought to retire,” says Carina Blomberg, economist at AMF.
    “The attitude in the job market isn’t in favor of older people," Blomberg says. "Many would like to be able to combine part-time work with part-time retirement.” From a European perspective, however, Swedes stand out with their positive attitude toward working longer. 43 percent say they want to continue working after age 64, while in Europe the average is 33 percent. If you plan to work after 65 and take out your occupational retirement or use your private retirement fund later, you have to let it be known in time, or the payments will commence automatically at 65, and won’t be stoppable. “I think this is a bit strange, but in order to change it we need to make a change in the law, or changes in the pension companies,” Blomberg says.

  • No such problems exist with the general pension—with that you have to ask Pensionsmyndigheten (the Swedish Pensions Agency) to start their payments. To shorten or prolong your working life has a big impact on the pension you receive in the end. For a privately hired worker born in 1949 and retiring at age 69, the occupational pension is 23 percent higher than that of someone who retires at 65. “Working longer adds quite a lot. But it also depends on the expectant length of life and how much the pension money increases.”