Employment Rates Among Older Persons until 2030. WIFO Simulations: Targeted Cost Containment of 2.7 billion € in the Pension Sector Requires a Stronger Increase

Christine Mayrhuber

18.08.2025

Employment Rates Among Older Persons until 2030

WIFO Simulations: Targeted Cost Containment of 2.7 billion € in the Pension Sector Requires a Stronger Increase

The government's current policy agenda outlines measures to significantly increase the employment of older individuals by 2030, thereby contributing to budget consolidation through higher social security revenues and delayed pension disbursements.

Simulations performed with the microDEMS model in a recent WIFO Research Brief by Thomas Horvath, Helmut Mahringer and Christine Mayrhuber show that even in the absence of the planned policy measures, the employment rate among woman aged 60 to 64 would nearly double, reaching 39.9 percent by 2030. Among men in this age group, an increase of 2.5 percentage points is projected, resulting in an employment rate of 48.1 percent.

However, achieving the targeted 2.7 billion € in pension savings by 2030 would require substantially higher employment rates in this age cohort than those estimated in the simulation results. Achieving these savings thus depends on the consistent implementation of the proposed labour market policy measures.