Increase of Labor Force of Older Age – Challenge for the Czech Republic in Next Decades

The continuing ageing of the population is a theme frequently discussed not only by demographers. A somewhat neglected fact is the ageing of the labor force.In the Czech Republic the increase of labor force of older age will be caused not only by the irregularities in the age structure, but also by the permanent increase of retirement age. Because of these two reasons the proportion of people in productive age older 50 years will almost double during next two decades.The article includes an analysis of the development of the sex-and-age structure of the Czech population of productive age based on the latest population projection published by the Czech Statistical Office last year.In all variants of development the labor force will be ageing, the average age of persons in productive age will increase. The proportion of younger workers will decline; whereas the proportion of employees over the age of 50 years will increase relatively strongly. Because of the fact that the increase of retirement age of females is twice as high as for males (and will be three times higher) the most important challenge will be to find appropriate labor opportunities for females older 60 years.