Analytics, Employment, Estonia, Labour-market, Markets and Companies, Pensioners

While employers generally hold their working older colleagues in high regard, 22% of the respondents said that they have felt being treated differently because of their age and 8% said that their candidacy has been rejected for that reason.

The average scores given to the availability of jobs with suitable workload and tasks were 5.5 points and 5.1 points out of 10, respectively. The average score to availability of jobs with suitable wage levels was just 4.8 points. The impact of the coronavirus crisis was pointed out separately due to it having reduced the number of jobs available and creating a basis for making retirement age employees redundant. 

Employers' attitudes towards candidates aged 55 and over was given a score of 4.9 points by respondents whereas attitudes towards existing colleagues of the same age were assessed with a score of 5.9 points, giving reason to believe that employers are satisfied with the work of their older colleagues.

Elderly people, their experience, commitment and reliability are generally held in high regard in a team. 68% of the respondents said that they had not felt that they were being treated differently due to their age. 

Job seekers mainly find information about available jobs on job classifieds portals; however the Unemployment Insurance Fund's newsfeed is also an importance source of information for many while the older generation often uses print media for this purpose.

The survey charting the labor market participation of people aged 55 and over was conducted by CV-Online from Aug. 24 Sept. 4. The questionnaire, which also probed respondents' opinions regarding the society's attitudes towards elderly people and their own expectations for employers, was filled in by 1,005 respondents, one-fifth of whom were pensioners, 50% worked either full time or part time and less than one-tenth were unemployed.