Delegates: Senior citizens in the labour force

Gudrun Sjödén

Creative Director and founder of the clothing company Gudrun Sjödén
Participating expert at Northern Future Forum

Kerstin Brunnberg

Chairman of Swedish Arts Council, previous CEO of Swedish Radio
Moderator at Northern Future Forum.

• You are over 65 and still active in the labour market. Any advice to people who want to do the same? Seeing as life is one long lesson, continuing to work is one way of learning more - not least by working together with other people. New contexts can challenge your experiences and knowledge. You also sleep well if you have had a meaningful session at work. Moreover, I think that if you can also contribute to the well-being of others - either by doing voluntary work or paying your taxes for the welfare system - this is good for cohesion in a society. Remember that your children should have as good a life as you have had.
• What is your opinion on the role of elderly people in the labour market today? I believe we should look at each person´s capacity, not their age, gender, ethnic origin, etc. I have had a job that has not been strenuous, so I can continue to contribute - but society has to understand that those who have done heavy and very demanding work, for example in the health and medical care sector or similarly laborious work in other sectors, need to be given the chance to stop working at a certain age.
• How will you prepare ahead of the meeting in February? I am reading as much as I can on this broad subject and about the countries represented; and I am preparing the issues.

Meg Tiveus

Board member, previous CEO of Svenska Spel
Participating expert at Northern Future Forum

• You are over 65 and active in the labour market. What is your advice to others who want the same? - To me, 'A healthy mind in a healthy body' means keeping both of them in shape. I exercise a lot, both physically and 'mentally'.
• How do you see the role of older people in today's labour market? - I believe in a mix of sexes, ages, backgrounds and experiences. We are obsessed with age in Sweden. A combination of experience and youth provides more added value.
• How are you preparing for the meeting in February? - I've written a proposal that I've submitted.

Barbro Hedvall

Journalist, previous editorial writer at Dagens Nyheter
Moderator at Northern Future Forum

Mia Odabas

Financial journalist
Moderator at Northern Future Forum.

• Do you have any advice to seniors who want to contiune working? If you´ve not done so before - start your own business. The level of freedom is priceless, the opportunities to realise your ideas fill you with energy, and in your more mature years you will also have gained useful experience and good contacts, and you will know what you can and can´t do - and thus what you need help with.
• What is your opinion on the role of elderly people in the labour market today? There is definitely a kind of ageism around today - I see on a daily basis how employers turn their nose up at the idea of employing older people. We have to change this attitude - older people have lots of experience, a great deal of time once their children are grown-up and often plenty of energy left. Moreover, older people can and should function as an important bridge for young people - mentoring is something that every young person (and older person, for that matter) should experience.
• How will you prepare ahead of the meeting in February? Eyes peeled, ears to the ground, of course. And I´m reading up on what it´s like in other countries. I´m compiling good examples and starting to get extremely curious!

Inga-Britt Ahlenius

Honorary Doctor, Lund University and the Royal Institute of Technology.
Rapporteur at Northern Future Forum.

• You are over 70 and active in the labour market. What is your advice to others who want the same? Actually, I don't know. It's different from individual to individual  and of course it depends on your education and your field of work. I was working 150 per cent until I turned 71. Now I'm moving down a gear or two and devoting time to my own education and studying history and Latin. And if I had stayed in Sweden with the attitudes that were around 8 years ago, I would have had to start up a company of my own and do consulting. And that might have turned out ok too.
  
  Traditionally and culturally, Sweden has long had a condescending view of older people in the workforce. Or perhaps of older people in general. "Fifty-five plus" became a kind of stigmatised age limit early on. During the crisis years of the 1970s and later, older workers were pensioned off (we got the concept of 58.7) based on the ignorant notion that "jobs had to be saved for young people". These types of measures shape attitudes and live on. New legislation has raised the compulsory retirement age to 67. That's good, but it should be raised to 70, or perhaps there shouldn't be one at all.
  
  I think we need both carrots and sticks to get people to work longer. We could do with more information about the welfare row and a few fundamental political decisions. We are living longer and extending the burden on the pension system, unless steps are taken. Then there is a negative but important incentive for people to work longer. The possibilities, of course, depend on what you did before retirement - academics, doctors, lawyers and economists can work until they are 75 or older. However, a crane driver who was interviewed today on the radio was 79, and his message was that he really had no intention of sitting back and going to pensioners´ meetings to talk about ailments. People born in the 1940s are living longer and are healthier than earlier generations, and they will be making demands. However, as a work-first system, the reformed pension system is completely different from the old one - but it may need to be adjusted.
  
• What is your opinion on the role of elderly people in the labour market today? Important skills and institutional memory disappear when large cohorts are pensioned off at a given age. However, the number of people who keep working after they've turned 65 has risen in recent years. It is important from all aspects to increase workforce participation after the age of 65 (the actual retirement age today is more like 62 or 63 in Sweden, isn't it?) This is for the sake of the economy, of private finances and of the well-being of older people. But some information about this may be needed. In the radio programme about older people in the labour market I heard today they were implying that older people steal jobs from younger people. Instead there should be increased awareness that the more people who are working, the better for everyone - both old and young.
• How will you prepare ahead of the meeting in February? I read the information I have received and I have also looked for and found some information on the Internet.