Demographic change over the last two decades: Population ageing has hardly affected unemployment

Abstract

"Population ageing is often assumed to significantly reduce unemployment in Germany. A decomposition of the unemployment rate's increase from 1991 to 2010 shows that the age composition has hardly affected unemployment: Overall, the increase in the unemployment rate has been 2.48 percentage points in the considered period. It would have been only an additional 0.19 percentage points higher if there had been no aging of the workforce. Changes in labor force participation have been counteracting demographic changes as well. Otherwise, the unemployment rate would have been higher by another 0.07 percentage points." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Garloff, A., Pohl, C. & Schanne, N. (2012): Demografischer Wandel der letzten 20 Jahre: Alterung der Bevölkerung hat sich kaum auf die Arbeitslosigkeit ausgewirkt. (IAB-Kurzbericht 10/2012), Nürnberg, 7 p.