OECD States Governments and Businesses Erried in Pushing Early Retirements in 1990's

Virginia Galt reports in the Globe and Mail that new research by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggests that governments and employers made a mistake, "which has returned to haunt them," by introducing early retirement schemes in the 1990s to push out older employees.

“Many older workers were induced to leave by very generous early retirement schemes, but relatively few young people were subsequently hired in their places,” John Martin, the OECD's director of employment, labour and social affairs, said at a forum in Toronto Thursday.

Now, with overall unemployment rates down but youth jobless rates still well above the international average of 6.6 per cent, employers are starting to complain about shortages of skilled labour, and policy makers are grappling with how to keep more of their experienced older hands in the work force.

Source: The Globe and Mail "Early retirement schemes a mistake, OECD says" (June 15, 2006)