Work after retirement more common among self-employed

Data from the labour force survey, collected from old-age pensioners in the EU in 2023, show that 56.4% of self-employed worked after having received their first old-age pension. 

Among the EU countries, the percentage of self-employed old-age pensioners who continued to work or re-entered the labour market was highest in Sweden (98.4%), Finland (88.0%) and Ireland (87.7%). On the other hand, it was the lowest in Spain (18.2%) and Greece (20.3%), followed by Slovenia (40.4%). 

Source dataset: lfso_23pens11

57% of employed old-age pensioners in the EU worked part-time

In 2023, 10.2% of old-age pensioners aged 50-74 were employed, and a significant proportion of this group worked part-time: more than half (57.0%) of employed old-age pensioners in the EU engaged in part-time employment. This rate was much higher than for those who are not old-age pensioners (16.2%). 

Part-time employment was more common among old-age pensioners in all EU countries. However, this proportion varied significantly across countries. Croatia had the highest share of part-time employed old-age pensioners (89.4%) and the largest disparity with non-pensioners (3.4%), resulting in a substantial gap of 86.0 percentage points. Croatia was followed by Sweden (79.2%) and Belgium (78.0%), with the highest shares of part-time employed old-age pensioners. 

In contrast, Bulgaria reported the lowest share of part-time employment among old-age pensioners (9.2%) and non-pensioners (1.2%). Lithuania (19.0%) and Latvia (23.2%) also registered the lowest shares of part-time employed old-age pensioners.

Interestingly, the Netherlands, which had the highest overall share of part-time employment, displayed the smallest relative difference between old-age pensioners (57.8%) and non-pensioners (39.4%).

Source dataset: ad-hoc extraction from EU-LFS