A record number of employees are retiring before the age of 65, according to a report by the HR company Acerta on Thursday.
In 2024, 42.8% of retiring employees did so before turning 65, which was the legal retirement age until 2025. This is slightly higher than in 2023 when 41.6% of people who had retired did so before reaching 65.
According to Acerta, the average retirement age in the country is 63 years and five months.
"The current measures aimed at encouraging people to postpone their retirement age are not having the desired effect," believes Acerta. "It remains to be seen whether the measures in the coalition agreement will have any impact on this situation," it added.
The situation varies from one sector to another. In construction, 58.3% of retirements take place before the age of 65. In the logistics and transport sector, this percentage rises to 57.8%. In other sectors, workers wait a little longer to retire. In the non-profit sector (especially hospitals and rest and care homes), just under 34% of workers who retired in 2024 were under 65.
Some differences are also found based on factors like gender. On average, women retire later: in 2024, just under 40% of retired women were under 65, compared with 46% of men.
On average, manual workers retire earlier than non-manual workers: 56% of manual workers who retired in 2024 were under 65, compared with around 34% of non-manual workers.
Finally, compared with employees, those who are self-employed generally stop working earlier. In 2024, 53.7% of the self-employed who retired did so before the age of 65.
Acerta's annual retirement study was based on the analysis of data from 190,000 full-time self-employed individuals and approximately 574,000 employees with permanent contracts at around 44,000 private employers.
