Abhängige Erwerbstätigkeit im Rentenalter: erste Erkenntnisse auf betrieblicher Ebene

Within recent decades, the gainful employment of persons beyond the age of retirement has grown considerably. Individual motives as well as the interests of companies drive this growth. For that reason, we describe the quantitative characteristics of employment beyond retirement age at company level first. The analysis of microcensus data shows that retirees tend to be concentrated in the area of mini jobs and often work just a few hours per week, and carry out low-skilled tasks. We then analyse the perspective of the companies from a human resources position in an explorative way and focus on the results from five qualitative case studies to point out possible reasons for companies to employ pensioners.. On the one hand, within the given companies, working retirees are used to close staffing gaps (short- or long-term). In this function, retirees are cost-effective, since they are over-qualified for most of their jobs but fulfil them for low wages in flexible work arrangements. On the other hand, the observed firms try to obtain (firm-) specific knowledge by retaining seniors beyond retirement age. Nevertheless, the employment of retirees can only be a short-term solution and not a sustainable long-term strategy.