A recent OECD study found that only Italy and Turkey do worse than Belgium regarding the participation of elder employees on the labour market. So, if Belgium wants to control the costs of the ageing population, activating these employees will be one of the most important challenges. We can learn something from our German neighbours in this respect, as Germany has succeeded in raising the participation of elder employees with 15% in seven years (up to 52%). On top of that, German unemployment fell with 1.2 million between 2005 and 2007. The authors of this paper conclude that these excellent results stem from reforms that made the labour market more flexible – and not solely from the upswing of the economy in the recent years – and point to a number of good practices. A must read for Belgian policy makers in other words.

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