The average age of employees grows by four years, to 43 and a half

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The causes of this aging of the population are the drop in the birth rate and the increase in longevity. The age recomposition of the population will have effects not only on the size of the workforce or the evolution of productivity, but also on the demand for goods and services or on the priorities in government public spending, reflects a report by Funcas published today. The study warns of the rapid aging of the active population in Spain. Aging is especially intense among non-salaried workers, men, public sector employees, small business employees and the autonomous communities of the northwest of the peninsula. To combat this phenomenon, the document proposes two paths. The first is with "the prolongation of working life" through delaying the legal retirement age. The second way is to "increase the employment rates of workers close to retirement age."

Respect to the profiles of labor income by age, a slowdown in income is observed from the age of 45 and a sharp drop from the age of 60, which suggests a sharp drop in productivity in these age groups. If between 2002 and 2022 the employed Job Function Email Database population increased around 18%, the employed population aged 50 and over more than doubled, while the employed population aged 16 to 29 was reduced by half. This phenomenon, which complicates the generational change of workers in all segments of the labor market, affects aggregate productivity growth, the main driver of long-term economic growth. To slow down and reverse this aging process and, therefore, avoid the potential effect on the productive structure, immigration and birth rates are key, according to Funcas experts.



The report studies the evolution of the birth rate in Spain, one of the lowest in the OECD, caused, among other reasons, by labor instability, derived from the high incidence of temporary contracts, and high unemployment in Spain. Furthermore, low labor flexibility and, specifically, the high incidence of split shifts, discourages birth among women with a higher opportunity cost of exiting the labor market, as is the case of those with university studies. According to the available evidence, the measures with the greatest potential to increase birth rates would be those that facilitate the reconciliation of work and family life. In particular, those that reduce the cost of mothers' labor participation, such as financing daycare centers or direct aid to working mothers, as well as those that reduce the incidence of split working hours, such as explicit restrictions on the use of this type of day.