Germany: first representative study to look at measures increasing older workers’ productivity

German lab.  Since demographic ageing is more significant in Germany than for its neighbors, the businesses of the top European economy have become true labs on the employment of older workers.  Indeed, there is a wide variety of studies, not only on the number of older workers but also on the number of businesses applying measures to maintain employees’ working capacities and the company’s productivity. Thus, the ZEW’s researchers, Christian Göbel and Thomas Zwick, authors of the study entitled “Which Personnel Measures are Effective in Increasing Productivity of Old Workers?” used data on 7 million workers and 8,500 businesses between 1997 and 2005.