population
People in Germany are increasingly retiring early
Two pensioners are sitting on a bench. photo
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
Since 2014, the legislature has made it possible to draw a pension without deductions at the age of 63. But this is not the only reason why employees are increasingly taking early retirement.
According to calculations by the Federal Institute for Population Research, people in Germany are increasingly retiring early. According to this, many leave the labor market at the age of 63 or 64 – and thus well before the standard retirement age. The institute in Wiesbaden announced that the rapid increase in the employment rate among the over-60s, which was observed at the beginning of the millennium, has largely come to a standstill in the last five years.
One reason for this is the “pension at 63”, i.e. the possibility of early retirement without deductions for long-term insured persons that has existed since 2014. In 2021, almost every third person would access an old-age pension in this way. In addition, according to the BiB, more and more people are retiring before the standard retirement age and accept deductions in the amount of their pension.
Between 2000 and 2015, the employment rate for men aged 60 to 64 more than doubled. There was even a fourfold increase in women of the same age. According to the information, this trend was determined by people born between 1940 and 1950. Currently, however, the baby boomers born in the 1950s are retiring.
The calculations are based on the microcensus data on the development of labor force participation. The Federal Institute for Population Research did not initially give exact figures.