According to Statistics Sweden (Statistiska Centralbyrån – SCB), twice as many older people are employed today than two decades ago. Men generally have a higher employment rate than women.
Men aged 65-69 worked an average of 27 hours per week, while women in the same age group worked an average of 24 hours per week. In the 70-74 age group, men worked on average 23 hours per week and women 18 hours. In 2023, the employment rate for the age group 75-89 in Sweden was seven per cent, or 65,700 people. For the 65-74 age group, the figure has doubled in two decades.
– More older people are working after retirement. The 65-74 age group has gone from an employment rate of 10 percent in 2001 to 20 percent in 2023, says Louise Stener, a statistician at Statistics Sweden, in a press release.
Women are more likely to work in health and social care, while men are more likely to work in agriculture and horticulture. At the same time, more older people are actively looking for work, and the proportion of unemployed older people is now twice as high as it was ten years ago.
– This suggests that there is an untapped labor supply even at older ages, says Stener.
The report is based on statistics from Statistics Sweden’s labor force surveys of people aged 55-89 in Sweden.
