site.bta13% of Retirees Kept Working in EU, 16.7% in Bulgaria in 2023

In 2023, the majority of pensioners stopped working (64.7%) or did not work at all (22.4%), while only 13% have continued working, according to Eurostat's EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), published on the European statistics agency's website on Monday.

The highest proportion of people who continued working was in the Baltic countries - Estonia (54.9%), Latvia (44.2%) and Lithuania (43.7%) - while the lowest levels were recorded in Romania (1.7%), Greece (4.2%) and Spain (4.9%).

For Bulgaria, the data shows that 16.7% of people who had already retired remained in the labour market.

The highest proportion of people who continue to work because they enjoy it is reported in Denmark (61%), the Netherlands (59.6%) and Italy (51.7%). The lowest proportions of workers stating this as a reason were recorded in Spain (17.9%), Cyprus (19.1%) and Slovakia (20.4%).

On the other hand, financial necessity is the main reason for continued employment in Cyprus (68.6%), Romania (54.3%) and Bulgaria (53.6%). The lowest share of people stating financial need as a reason was reported in Sweden (9.4%), the Czech Republic (12.4%) and Luxembourg (14.4%).