1. Older persons in the Swedish Labour Force Surveys
Peter Beijron, Statistics Sweden

2. Introduction/Background
Target population in Swedish LFS currently perons aged years
Panel design with 8 waves
Simplified rules used in two cases:
Persons aged years old
Persons permanently unable to work

3. Simplified rules 65-74 year olds
In the first wave all respondents are interviewed, no special handling is done based on the age of the respondent.
In waves two, three and four persons aged are not interviewed given that they in the previous wave
were outside the labour force
did not want to work
In wave five all respondents are again interviewed. For those aged years this means that we will get new information on their labour status one year after the interview in the first wave.
In waves six and seven we again impute the values for those aged years who fulfill conditions 1) and 2).
In the eight wave all respondents are interviewed again. This is mainly done for practical reasons as the household supplement is done in the last wave.

4. Simplified rules for those permanently unable to work
Persons who are:
Not employed according to ILO-status
Permanently unable to work according to MAINSTAT
Interviewed 1st, 5th and 8th wave

5. Extent of imputed values
Chart 1. Share of respondents aged imputed, by reason for imputation

6. Extent of imputed values
Imputed values account for about half of the information for the age group years old
During the period :
Overall decrease in the imputation rate
Increase in persons imputed due to being inactive and not wanting to work
Decrease in persons imputed due to being permanently unable to work

7. Do we miss changes?
Due to panel design we can compare 4th wave, which is imputed, with 5th wave, which is only interview information
Chart 2. Share of respondents aged remaining outside the labour force

8. Do we miss changes? Overall:
An increase in the fluctuations
Almost no cases where persons in this age group go from being outside the labour force to being unemployed
About 2% change from outside the labour force to employment (14 of 746 persons interviewed per quarter)
More common among year olds
What can we say about those that change ILO-status between waves 4/5 and 7/8?
Temporary employment is most common, especially among year olds
Among those aged years old, more common to be self-employed
Those temporarily employed most often have no contract and are called in to work the reference week

9. Effects of the upper age limit
According to the proposed simplified rules
All persons aged should be interviewed at least once
Pension system in Sweden
No fixed retirement age
Can receive pension from the age of 61 (will likely be increased to 64 in coming years)
Laws governing employment apply up to the age of 67 (will likely be increased to 69 in coming years)

10. Extension of the population
Register data used to look at employment among persons aged 75-89
Chart 3. Employment rate for persons aged 61 to 89 years, 2015

11. Total employment
Looking at the results, this would mean that the employment rate for the total population would decrease by about 0,3 to 0,5 for each extension. Comparing the current figure the decrease would be from 66,6 percent to 60,9 percent if the full extension to 89 years was made.
Chart 5. Total employment rate for different populations, 2015

12. Employment among 65+
An extension would decrease the employment rate among “older persons” from 16,4 percent to 12 percent.
Chart 6. Employment rate for those aged 65+ with different populations, 2015

13. Potential issues Communication with users Technical issues
Changes in total employment
Changes in employment 65+
Technical issues
Sample size needed to be able to measure employment among the older age groups?
Using only private households could become more problematic as age increases
Imputation of which groups is reasonable?

14. Thank you for listening!