The measure is in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy and with the flagship initiative “An Agenda for New Skills and New Jobs”. In particular, it supports the overall 75% employment rate target defined in the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Additionally, this measure is in line with the Employment Guidelines to increase labour market participation of older workers. The Lisbon Strategy likewise addresses the importance of active ageing policies. Despite this strategy, more than half of the EU countries in 2010 did not reach the Lisbon target of 50% of older workers in employment.

The German labour market is facing major challenges due to its ageing population and policy measures that have increased early retirement.

In the 2000s Germany nonetheless showed positive developments with regard to older workers’ labour market participation. The employment rate of older workers increased from below 50% to 66%, and the unemployment rate decreased 20%. In the same period older workers showed an increasing will to remain in employment; in 2010 seven out of ten persons in this age cohort were either in employment or job-seeking.

Given the importance of ensuring adequate skills supply through older workers’ labour market participation, the German PES, Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA), introduced a range of measures to support the labour market participation of older workers. These included support for older unemployed persons as well as services for employers.

The main problem being addressed was the low participation of older workers in the labour market due to obsolete skills, decreasing employability and psychosocial obstacles for especially the long-term unemployed. Furthermore, a trend of early retirement had been prevailing. Local employers’ and institutions’ inadequate awareness of and lack of interest in this age group was a hindrance to effectively addressing the problem. This had resulted in an increasing skills shortage as older workers did not develop their employability, and retired workers could not be replaced.

In 2010, the Institute for Employment Research (IBA) foresaw that the share of workers aged over 50 would increase from roughly 27% in 2010 to 34% in 2020. This highlighted the need for implementation of preventive measures in order to avoid future skills shortages in the labour market.

Subsequently, the PES continuously strengthened the effort to promote sustainable employability through lifelong learning and the reintegration of older long-term unemployed persons into the labour market.

The goal of the measure was to increase older workers’ labour market participation through individual support to the long-term unemployed and mobilisation of the local institutional networks to promote recruitment of older workers.

Essential in this measure (compared to other PES measures) was the mobilisation of local responsibilities and the establishment of regional networks through “employment pacts” (partnerships) in the respective regions where the measure was implemented.

The measure on the one hand allowed jobcentres to support the long-term unemployed and older workers individually. On the other hand it also allowed jobcentres to engage as partners in regional networks in collaboration with other social partners. Jobcentres in this way functioned as a ‘mediator’ between older workers, social partners and potential employers.

The main activities in the “Employment Pacts” consisted of services to both employers and older long-term unemployed persons. Integration of older unemployed persons into the labour market was a complex process given their professional, personal and social barriers to entering employment as well as employers’ attitudes towards older workers. In order to facilitate the process, services were tailored to meet the needs of the employer and the unemployed person.

Services to employers included:

• Support to identify the right job candidates. Through development of job descriptions, counsellors at jobcentres supported employers in identifying suitable unemployed persons to fill vacancies (especially in the case of small companies without Human Resource Departments).
• Integration subsidy and tailored support. The integration subsidy of up to 50% of the wage (for 36 months at the longest) covered an employer’s financial risks when employing an older worker. To support prospects for permanent employment, the employer was also obliged to keep the older worker after termination of the subsidy. The mandatory employment period had to correspond to the subsidy period, but would last for maximum 12 months. Additionally, the employer received company tailored advice to support the integration process of the older worker.
• Knowledge exchange. Participants in regional pacts had the opportunity to learn from each other through dissemination of good practices in workshops and via an online platform.

Services to unemployed persons included:

• Profiling. In order to match job-seekers with employers, counsellors at jobcentres carried out a social and professional profiling of the job-seekers.
• Liaison with employment agencies. Jobcentres liaised with employment agencies to offer older unemployed persons a variety of opportunities to enter employment.

The measure led to increased labour market participation of older workers.

In 2011 more than 200,000 unemployed persons participated in “Perspective 50plus”. Outputs for these participants included:

• Over 70,000 of the participants entered employment. Many of the participants had no vocational qualification, and participating immigrants often had language difficulties. Additionally, the share of participants living alone was higher than in the general population. The measure’s individualised counselling supported the development of employability and removal of personal and social barriers to enter employment.
• 34% of the employment contracts were supported by an integration subsidy. This highlights that the majority of the employment contracts were not supported financially. The reason for this could be attributed to the counsellors’ tailored guidance to employers when hiring older workers. Employers’ increased knowledge of the older workers skills and potential may have increased their confidence in their added value to the labour force and thus why they did not consider a subsidy to be necessary.