Germany: Decline in early retirement leads the way

In Germany, the dissociation between the working age population and the labor force, which rose 2.5% has been as striking as in Japan.

A rise in female labor force participation was an important driver of the implied rise in German labor force participation, as in Japan (and the UK). There has also been someincrease in labor force participation by the elderly (65+) population, although, unlike in Japan, labor force participation of this group remains quite low.

But quantitatively more important than these was a surge of participation by the 'near retirement' population aged 55-64, which raised the overall rate of labor force participation by 2.4pp.