VICTORIA STOICIU I SOCIAL AND LABOR MARKET INCLUSION OF OLDER PERSONS Introduction According to the last Romanian census in 2011, the persons aged 65 and over represent 16.1% of total population 1 . A Presidential Committee report es­timates that the five million persons aged 65 and over will represent, at the middle of the century, 30% of the country’s population, i.e. third times more than in the early 1990s(Presidential Admin­istration, 2009). Aging is usually associated with a decline in activ­ity or with entering inactivity, with higher depen­dency on healthcare and social services and often with a more precarious economic situation. This has economic implications, as well as an impact on the organization and functioning of society. This paper is intended as a brief overview of the situation of older persons in Romania. The follow­ing analysis will focus on the economic and social inclusion status of older persons, as well as on the access of the elderly to the labor market. 1. Social inclusion of older persons In spite of a public discourse that describes the older and retired persons as the most vulnerable category in society, the situation of older people in Romania is not the worst when compared to other age groups. The rates of poverty or social exclusion among older people are lower compared to other disadvantaged groups. Unlike young people up to the age of 25 or often unlike the majority of the population, seniors enjoy slightly better living stan­dards. However, this does not mean that poverty is not an issue for older people: on the contrary, the share of older persons in the poor population is rather large, as a result of the great number of retired people whose income is low and very low (National Council of Older Persons, 2013). Moreover, the wider category of older people in­cludes subcategories that require special attention, as they are particularly vulnerable and exposed to the risk of social exclusion. For instance, older wom­en are affected by poverty to a greater extent than men: in 2013, 38.8% of the men aged over 65 were threatened by poverty or social exclusion, com­1. http://economie.hotnews.ro/stiri-finante_banci-15122357­recensamantul-populatiei.htm pared to 39% of women. The risk of poverty and social exclusion is higher for single older persons, with one of three people in this age category being exposed 2 . 1.1 Positive, but insufficient progress Compared to other countries in the European Union, the situation of seniors in Romania is one of the most precarious: Romania is at the bottom of the rankings, below Bulgaria and Lithuania, in point of poverty and social exclusion of older persons. The rate of people exposed to poverty is twice the European mean(18% for people above the age of 65 in 2013, according to Eurostat). Nevertheless, the situation of older people in Romania has signifi­cantly improved in the last 5 years. While before 2009 the proportion of older people threatened by poverty was higher than the nation­al average, this trend has been gradually reversed since 2009. The most significant improvement can be seen in the age group over 65, with a decline in the risk of poverty from 65% in 2007 to 35% in 2013! Te median income of the persons aged over 65 has dramatically increased since 2008, from 75% in 2007 to 1.04% of the median income of the pop­ulation in the 0-64 age group. Chart 1. Persons exposed to the risk of poverty,%, by age group. Source: Eurostat The same positive trend is also indicated by the evolution of the rate of older persons affected by severe economic deprivation. From 2007 to 2013, the percentage of people aged over 55 affected by severe economic deprivation dropped from 42.9% to 27.3% and from 48.9% to 27.5% for those aged over 65. 2. http://economie.hotnews.ro/stiri-finante_banci-13620098­analiza-imbatranirea-romaniei-cateva-date-grafice-cifre.htm 1