Page 25 - IDEA Study 3 2015 Duchodova studie

Distribution of Occupations The distribution of these three occupational groups for men and women is shown in graph 2.6. As education determines occupational choice to a great extent, the distribution of jobs is related to educational attainment levels in the various countries. We observe very large differences for both genders across the four regions. In Northern Europe, approximately half of the male population is employed in professional occupations. In Western countries and in the Czech Republic, this proportion is around one third. On the other hand, the vast majority of men in Southern and Eastern Europe work in manual occupations. For women, the dominant occupations are in services, except in Southern and Eastern Europe, where women are more often employed in manual occupations. In general, the more developed the region is, the fewer people work in manual occupations (note the small fraction of women working in such occupations in the Nordic countries). These differences are very important, since people with higher education and non-manual jobs are generally more flexible in the labour market, with lower incidence of unemployment, higher wages, and less physically demanding working conditions than people in manual occupations. GRAPH 2.6 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Distribution of occupations - Men N W S E CZ Source: Data SHARE Type of occupation Manual Services Proffesional 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Distribution of occupations - Women N W S E CZ Source: Data SHARE Type of occupation Manual Services Proffesional Retirement Decisions and Occupation Column graph 2.7 shows the average effective retirement age for people aged 50-74 years in our three occupational categories. In general, the average retirement age is higher for those working in services and professional occupations. At the same time, however, the differences are not large enough to reveal early retirement for workers in physically demanding manual occupations, even in the most generous welfare systems of Northern Europe. While the average retirement age for men is similar across Europe (with the exception of Nordic countries), substantial differences are seen between the average retirement ages of women in Eastern and Southern Europe, who retire around 5 years earlier than women in Western Europe and around 8 years earlier than women in Northern Europe. In the Czech Republic, this is the 23