The average retirement age of Dutch workers in 2008 of 62 years did not increase compared with the previous year, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has found. Nearly 80% of workers who retired in 2008 were younger than the official retirement age of 65.
The leveling off of the retirement age has also been attributed to weakening labor demand in the wake of the financial crisis. That is expected to change, however.
“Because pension funds can hardly pay any indexation now, people will feel the urge to keep on working longer, supported by a recovering economy and a growing demand for labor,” said Lans Bovenberg, an economist at Tilburg University and a director at Netspar, the network for retirement, pensions and aging.
Bovenberg has argued that the state pension should be raised to 68 to meet growing life expectancy. The current minority government has agreed to increase the official retirement age to 66 in 2020, but has not yet passed any legislation.
Between 2000 and 2006, employees stopped working at age 61 on average. However, in 2007, following legislation to discourage early retirement, the average retirement age increased to 62 years.
The retirement age of workers in agriculture and fisheries was the highest in 2008, at almost 65. Employees in the hotel and catering business, as well as staff at service providers in the environmental and cultural sectors, retired at age 63 on average. Workers in the care and building sectors, and in public services, took the earliest retirement (age 61).
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