I Don't Know What To Make Of This

     Below is a table from the Social Security Administration's monthly International Update. The Update deals, in part, with changes made in early retirement programs. I don't think that differences in social insurance programs can explain these dramatic differences between countries or that changes in social insurance programs explain the differences over time in individual countries. I don't know what to make of a lot of this. For example, why the dramatic differences between Spain and Portugal for those aged 65-69? In any case, the Update notes that many European countries are raising the minimum age for early retirement under their social insurance programs and that they are generally encouraging older workers to stay in the workforce, or, perhaps, more accurately, punishing those who don't.

Table 1. Older workers in the labor force in selected European Union countries, as a percentage of their age group, 2001 and 2011

Country	Aged 55–64		Aged 65–69
	2001	2011	2001	2011
Belgium	25.2	38.7	2.4	3.5
Czech Republic	37.1	47.6	7.6	9.3
Denmark	56.5	59.5	12.2	13.5
Finland	45.9	57.0	5.3	11.8
France	30.7	41.4	2.1	5.3
Germany	37.9	59.9	5.4	10.1
Greece	38.0	39.4	10.3	8.6
Ireland	46.9	50.8	14.8	16.8
Netherlands	37.3	56.1	5.6	11.4
Poland	29.0	36.9	10.8	9.4
Portugal	50.2	47.9	27.8	21.9
Spain	39.2	44.5	3.9	4.5
SOURCE: "Older Workers Scorecard, 2001, 2005, and 2011," OECD, 2011.