In view of the ageing of the population, public strategies are being approved aimed at promoting the employment of seniors, while encouraging policies at the company level to promote labor inclusion and retention of senior talent.
According to the latest edition of the report on the demographics of Europe published by Eurostat, in the period from 1 January 2004 to 1 January 2024 the proportion of people aged 65 and over increased from 16.4% to 21.6% in the European Union. This trend reflects a progressive ageing population that poses significant challenges for the labor market and social protection systems.
In this scenario, one of the objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan is for at least 78% of the population aged 20 to 64 to be in work by 2030.
Demographic transformation and the ageing of the population are presented as one of the greatest social and legal challenges of our time, where legislative changes are betting on the articulation of measures to promote hiring for the group over 45 years of age and the introduction of reforms in the retirement benefit that promote the maintenance of active employees during for as long as possible.
In this context, the Spanish Strategy for Active Support for Employment and the Annual Plan for the Promotion of Decent Employment 2025 (PAFED, for the acronym in Spanish) are the reference framework for the coordination and implementation of active employment support policies in Spain. Specifically, the PAFED 2025 sets minimum quantitative objectives for the number of assistances provided to applicants for each of the autonomous communities, focusing on priority care groups, including those over 45 years of age.
The PAFED takes into account the measures approved in Royal Decree-Law 2/2024, of May 21 and, in particular, for the beneficiaries of unemployment benefit for the over-45s, the guarantee of the preparation of an individualized profile that allows access to employment, entrepreneurship or training opportunities.
On the other hand, several autonomous communities have recently approved policies and strategies aimed at reincorporation into the labor market, support in training and implementation of measures directed to prevent discrimination against the elderly. Examples of this are the Galician Strategy against Equality 2025-2031, prepared by the Ministry of Social Policy and Equality of the Regional Government of Galicia, whose main objective is to eliminate age discrimination and promote a more inclusive society; or the Senior Employment Plan 2026-2027 of the Community of Madrid, which seeks to improve the labor insertion of people over 45 years of age, as well as to activate their potential.
Another way of declaring its commitment to consolidate collaboration between public administrations, companies and civil society to take advantage of the potential of seniors as a driver of economic development is the signing, on November 1, 2025, of the “Manifest for the silver economy” by the autonomous communities of Castilla y León, Extremadura and Andalusia of the well-known “silver route”.
In the field of companies, diversity policies have been fundamentally aimed at avoiding discrimination based on disability or gender, but current social and demographic changes are also leading to the introduction of the age component.
In these policies, companies can introduce measures for the incorporation or retention of senior talent such as mentoring programs for the transmission of knowledge and experience to younger staff; creation of work teams of different ages, thus promoting generational exchange; work organization, risk prevention and adaptation of positions for the promotion of the ensuring safe and healthy working conditions; career plans and retirement assistance; benefit programs in the field of complementary social security or specific training programs that allow adaptation to new technologies.
These policies and plans will allow companies to take advantage of both the experience and talent of their senior staff and to anticipate the incorporation of practices framed in government actions that seek to overcome the challenge of an aging population.
It should not be forgotten, however, that these policies coexist with others of the opposite nature, focused on enabling the forced termination of the employment contract due to age (retirement) to promote generational renewal or progress in equality between women and men (Tenth additional provision of the Workers’ Statute, drafted by final provision 1.1 of Law 21/2021, of 28 December).
