The drop has been driven largely by an exodus of women from the workforce. Given Poland's demographic situation, this could become a growing problem, warned the statistics agency.
"Faced with an ageing population, increasing employment of the older unemployed, as well as their professional activation, could become a priority of labor market policy," it said.
The number of over-50s in the labor force – which includes both people in work and seeking employment – fell to under 4.6 million in 2019, and was around 1% lower than the previous year. The labor force participation rate among all over-50s stood at 33.4% in 2019, which was 0.4 percentage points lower than in 2018 and 22.9 percentage points below the level for the general population.
Among the 46,000 over-50s who left the job market, 32,000 (70%) were women. Just one in four (26.2%) women aged over 50 years remained economically active in 2019, compared to 42.5% of men. Poland's population has long been ageing, as Poles living longer lives, start families later and have fewer children. By 2019, 37.4% of the population was above the age of 50.
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