Thanks to the medical progress made, particularly in the field of cardiovascular diseases and cancers, life expectancy in France continues to increase. According to a recent INSEE study, the life expectancy of women, in 2021, thus reached 85.4 years compared to 79.3 years for men. Despite this average, disparities persist according to social categories, but also the jobs performed by each. The fifteen years gained by the French population since 1950 must therefore be interpreted with regard to the quality of life.
As Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt announced at a press conference in December, “We are living longer and therefore (…) we have to work longer”. Returning to his remarks in an interview with Le Parisien, he assured that a balance of the system could be achieved with “an age measure at 64, if indeed it is accompanied by an acceleration of the contribution period. to reach the age of 43 more quickly”.
Statements that fail to stifle a dull anger on the part of the French, worried about the prospect of a quality of life degraded by a retirement deemed late. According to the FIFG, 68% of French people would, on the contrary, want to bring the legal retirement age back to 60 instead of the announced 65. Among the main reasons mentioned, the hardship of the work, as well as the fear of future health problems appear regularly.
Workers, farmers, executives, intermediate professions… Despite the differences in working conditions, all French people are worried about the next pension reform. As the recent France Info survey shows, all socio-professional categories are concerned by the question of the legal retirement age and express their fears on this subject. It has thus been proven that the increase in life expectancy is not correlated with the state of health of the French. Therefore, life expectancy without disability was limited, in 2020, to 64.4 years for men and 65.9 years for women, according to INSEE.
In 2018, the Ministry of Health confirmed the rapid onset of incapacity during their first year of retirement with 23% of French people suffering from a physical limitation. This level of incapacity was directly correlated to the profession exercised by the respondents. As part of a higher intellectual profession or a managerial job, 86% retained all their physical abilities after a year of retirement. If 82% of the intermediate professions were in the same case, the percentage of absence of incapacity fell to 66% for the category of workers.