ABSTRACT
A major trend has gained strength over the past decades in France: the decline of the participation rate 1 of workers fifty-five-years-old. Despite a recent tick upward the employment rate among the fifty-five to sixty-four-year-old age group remains very low in France in contrast with OECD countries (39.3 percent versus 49.4 percent in 2002, OECD, 2004). The French Pension debates have focused on the question of the demographic ratio between the working and non-working populations, as well as on the necessity to extend the working lifecycle. Various resolutions of the European Council have already gone in that direction defining a target of 50 percent in the employment rate among the population aged between fifty-five and sixty-four-years-old by 2010 (resolution of the Stockholm European Council of March 2001) with a five-year progressive increase in the average effective retirement age also starting that year (resolution of the Barcelona European Council of March 2002).
