More and more elderly people in Germany are working past the age of retirement, which currently stands at 65 for both men and women. Many are even working well beyond the age of 65. It is unclear how many actually choose to continue working or whether it is a necessity. The numbers are astounding. Almost 800,000 pensioners are still working part-time and almost one in every ten pensioners currently holds a full-time position.

The number of pensioners with a part time job has risen by almost 60 percent since 2000 (280,000 more people) to around 761,000. These numbers were released by the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday, after requests from parliamentary groups for more clarity regarding the situation. In 2011, 120,000 of those with a part-time job were 75 years or older.

According to statistics published by the Federal Labour Agency at the end of last year 154,000 people of retirement age were still working. This means that the number has almost doubled since 1999, and a significant number of these had a full time position. Self-employed pensioners were not included in the statistics.