[Dans quelles conditions travaillent les salariés les plus âgés ? L’économiste Annie Jolivet, ingénieure de recherche au Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam) dans l’équipe Ergonomie du Centre de recherche sur le travail et le développement (CRTD) et au sein du Centre d’études de l’emploi et du travail (CEET), a établi une typologie qui permet de comprendre qui est affecté par quelles contraintes, et de mieux saisir la soutenabilité du travail en fin de carrière. Parmi ses travaux, elle a notamment coordonné en 2014 Le Travail avant la retraite. Emploi, travail et savoirs professionnels des seniors », éditions Liaisons sociales, avec Anne-Françoise Molinié et Serge Volkoff, et a publié cette année « Pénibilité du travail et retraite : une comparaison internationale des dispositifs existants ».]
Successive pension reforms in France have gradually extended the length of working life, first by increasing the duration of insurance required for a full pension, then by twice raising the ages, in 2010 and 2023. thresholds for obtaining a full-rate pension and the cancellation of the reduction. The 2019 and 2023 reforms have sparked particularly lively debates regarding the unequal possibilities of remaining employed until retirement with regard to working conditions.
The last part of professional life is a more vague period than it seems: it is not subject to any legal definition; the notion of “senior” which could relate to it is also not defined; the age thresholds most often mentioned (45, 50, 55 years) offer an unsuitable demarcation for the developments driven by pension reforms (Annie Jolivet, “Employment, work and career paths”, Retirement and societyn° 90, 2023).
Work plays a role in this in several ways. By the traces it may have left on health, through work accidents, occupational illnesses but also by damage that is still barely visible but which may be irreversible. By the difficulties or possibilities of holding on to the job taking into account the working conditions, the room for maneuver and the possibilities for mutual assistance in the job held. By the links it may have with the employment path, in particular through interruptions linked to unemployment or exits from activity, but also because of the characteristics of jobs which offer hiring possibilities even at ages late.
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