Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Figure 8: Employment rates of older German females (in %), 1970-2006
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2006
50-54-year-old women
60-64-year-old women
55-59-year-old women
65-year-old women and older
Source: as above.
The rising labour force participation of older Germans since 1996 cannot be reduced to
the higher participation rates of German women but is equally an effect of first restrictions
with regard to early retirement (Büttner 2005b: 6). However, the rising participation and
employment rates of older Germans can be partially explained with the expansion of parttime
work, of marginal, uncovered employment (“Minijobs”) and of the early retirement
scheme in the blocked model (Büttner 2005b: 8; Abschlussbericht… 2007: 7). Till the end
of 2006, over one million people have utilised ATZ (DRV 2008: 85), only half of them cofinanced
by the employment office (IG Metall 2007: 3).
Institutional changes exert also an impact upon exit preferences of individual workers.
The available institutional trajectories shape the expectations about the timing of (early) exit
and may contribute to an ´early retirement culture´. Conversely, closed exit pathways will in
time shape individuals´ notions about the optimum timing of withdrawal from the labour
market. Those shifts can be read off from the results of the Ageing Survey conducted in
1996 and repeated in 2002 which focused on persons aged 40 to 59 (Table 5). 22
22 The following paragraphs partially draw on Aleksandrowicz/Hinrichs (2004).
62