EK’s Lasse Laatunen, an exponent of longer working hours in Finland.

Experts say that despite increased life expectancies the ability of an average 70-year-old to work is not a given, the financial newspaper Talous Sanomat reports.

"Memory lapses, muscle weakness, heart problems and diabetes... This is how infirm many a 70-year-old worker would be. Employers demanding a rise in the age of retirement would also want them to work. Experts say, however, that only a few per cent of 70-year-olds would be in good enough shape for paid employment. Which jobs could elderly people handle?

The legal director of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) and advocate of lengthening working careers Lasse Laatunen pondered recently in a newspaper interview that there would also be a need in Finland to raise the retirement age to 70 years.

On the side of the employers it is argued that such a change would be possible based on a rise in people's life expectancies. Furthermore, according to EK those now getting on in years are much more limber than previous generations, so they would be able to toil for longer.

Experts warn, however, that the true condition and ability of 70-year-old Finns in the workplace has not been sufficiently researched.

"There is also a great deal of variation in the ability to work and state of health of people in that age group," department head Antti Uutela of the National Institute for Health and Welfare reminds us. Only a few would be fully able to work."

TALOUS SANOMAT 29 AUGUST. PETRI KORHONEN
Lehtikuva - Vesa Moilanen