The labor market for older workers in Germany

Abstract

The paper describes labor market developments for older workers in Germany in recent years. It provides a a summary of the main changes in labor market and pension policies in Germany which might have contributed to these developments. The main part of the paper offers, on the basis of micro data from the Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), empirical evidence on changes in employment and long-term unemployment, early retirement as well as relative wages by age for Germany in the period 2000–2014. Based on this empirical analysis, some implications for labor market policies are discussed.