Elderly People in Labor Markets in Selected Central European Countries

In most European countries, one of the biggest challenges is population ageing due to declining birth rates and a longer life expectancy. The demographic slowdown contributes to the decline of labor resources. That process threatens the public finance and economies of many countries. Increasing the economic activity of elderly people is a way to meet the challenges posed by unfavorable changes in human resources. The purpose of this paper is to present the evolution of economic activity of elderly people in the 2005-2015 period in selected Central European countries: in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.Also, an attempt was made to specify the key determinants impacting the economic activity of this sub-population. As shown by the analysis, over the 2005-2015 period, there was a gradual increase in employment rates of the population aged 55-64. Among the countries considered, attention should be drawn to Poland where that rate increased by 18 percentage points. That growth is related to the implemented reform of the pension scheme and to initiatives in place that activate the elderly population.