The number of work-active people over 55 years of age has skyrocketed by 62% in the last ten years and by 147% in 20 years, reaching over 4.8 million people in 2023, according to a report released by the Foundation Adecco.
Specifically, Spain has 4,853,400 active people over the age of 55, or what is the same, almost 5 million senior people have work or are looking for a job Spain, a figure that represents 20% of the total workforce, seven points more than ten years ago.
The Adecco Foundation underlines in its report that the inclusion of seniors in the labour market has become a “strategic issue” for the economy, in a context of record ageing, in which the average age of the population is greater.
Thus, in Spain there are 133 people over the age of 64 for every 100 people under the age of 16, a proportion that, according to the Adecco Foundation, is growing “at an unbridled pace” given a life expectancy at all-time highs and a drop of the birth rate that places Spain as the second country in the EU with the lowest number of births.
By autonomous communities, Castilla y León (24.9%), Asturias (23.7%) and the Basque Country (23.1%) are the regions with the highest proportion of people over 55 years of age among the total active population, while the Balearic Islands (18.8%), Murcia (18.9%) and Andalusia (19.1%) present the lowest percentages.
By provinces, Segovia (28.5%), Zamora (27.5%) and Lugo (27.3%) have the highest number of active seniors in their total working-age population.
According to the Adecco Foundation, the so-called baby-boomers, the largest generation in history, is already over the age of 55 and increases the proportion of senior citizens in Spain.
“We live in a demographic winter, which means that the number of births is insufficient to replace the people who die. This leads to a decrease in the population and therefore a smaller available labour force, in addition to other effects such as increased pressure on the Social Security system,” the report warns.
In this sense, the Adecco Foundation shows its concern about the lack of generational relief in an active population among which there are few young people.
Added to all this is the increase in the senior inactive population, which has not stopped growing in the last decade, especially after the turning point of the pandemic, “when not a few senior workers have been forced to retire,” points out the foundation.
“Given this reality, it is urgent to promote senior talent as an engine of competitiveness, so that the negative prejudices that relegate those over 55 from the labour market are definitively discarded. Their contribution is key to the competitiveness of companies and to the sustainability of the country”, defended Francisco Mesonero, general director of the Adecco Foundation.
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