Based on the EU-LFS conducted in 2023, a majority of people did not work (22.4%) or stopped working (64.7%) in the EU during the 6 months following the receipt of their first old-age pension. Only 13% continued working.
Among those who continued to work, about half continued as before while for the other half, there were changes, such as changing jobs, working fewer hours, or working in a second job while stopping the first job.
The highest share of people who continued working was found in the Baltic countries, Estonia (54.9%), Latvia (44.2%) and Lithuania (43.7%), while the lowest share was registered in Romania (1.7%), Greece (4.2%) and Spain (4.9%).
Source dataset: lfso_23pens06
The main reasons for people to continue to work after receiving an old-age pension were because they enjoyed working and being productive (stated by 36.3% of people) or did so due to financial necessity (28.6%).
A desire to maintain social integration (11.2%) and the financial attractiveness of work (9.1%) were also mentioned as reasons for continuing to work. A smaller proportion, 3.5%, continued working because their partner was still employed.
Source dataset: lfso_23pens08
Denmark (61.0%), the Netherlands (59.6%), and Italy (51.7%) had the highest proportion of people who continued working because they enjoyed it. By contrast, the smallest proportion of people reporting this reason was in Spain (17.9%), Cyprus (19.1%) and Slovakia (20.4%).
On the other hand, financial necessity was the main reason for continuing to work in Cyprus (68.6%), Romania (54.3%), and Bulgaria (53.6%), while Sweden (9.4%), Czechia (12.4%,) and Luxembourg (14.4%) registered the lowest share.
Source dataset: lfso_23pens08