The average age of the working population has increased by more than four years on average since 2000, which has meant going from an average of 44 to 48 years in the case of the non-salaried employed population and from 37.5 to 43.5 years in the case of the salaried population, where the increase in average longevity has been greater, according to Funcas.
The entity’s publication Papeles de Economía Española, dedicated to the demographic challenge, includes in one of its articles the effect of the aging of the population on the labor market and the future impacts that it may entail.
Thus, between 2002 and 2022, the employed population aged 50 or over has multiplied by two, compared to the 18% increase in the employed population in general. In contrast to these two progressions, the number of workers between the ages of 16 and 29 has taken a diametrically opposite turn and has halved.
The aging of workers is especially intense among non-salaried workers, salaried workers in the public sector and employees of small companies.
This trend threatens to have major repercussions for the Spanish economy, since the aging of the employed population usually brings with it a progressive decline in productivity with age.
The article by Brindusa Anghel, Juan Francisco Jimeno and Pau Jovell also focuses on the evolution of the income of the working population in Spain. Specifically, they find that income slows down from the age of 45 and suffers a sharp drop from the age of 60.
Among the most aged sectors are the primary and real estate sectors in the case of non-salaried workers and the public administration, education, health and finances on the side of salaried employees.
Likewise, they highlight the need to attract immigration and promote the birth rate as ‘antidotes’ to correct this tendency to aging and to be able to carry out the generational substitution of workers.
In the case of immigration, the foreign employed population is 3.4 years lower on average than those born in Spain, and, although since the 2007 crisis it has aged at the same rate as the national population, the new migratory flows after the pandemic they are once again rejuvenating this group and workers in Spain in general.
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