The bar charts illustrate the level of employment in the 60-64 age demographic in Belgium, the USA, Japan, and Indonesia in 1970 and 2000.
Overall, all surveyed countries observed declines in their employment rates of both genders over the given period, with the most significant drop being in Belgium. Additionally, men always outnumbered women across all the four nations.
Focusing first on men, America took the lead with 86% of men aged 60 to 64 having a job, closely followed by Indonesia at just 2% lower in 1970. In the next 3 decades, the percentage of employed men in the 60-64 age range in both countries experienced declines of varying degrees, settling at 78% and 74%, respectively—maintaining their original positions nevertheless. Belgium and Japan recorded even more significant drops in their employment levels, with the former falling by 13% to 63% in 2000 and the latter by a whopping 27% to 52%.
Although there were fewer 60-to-64-year-old women in employment in both years, employment among them also decreased. The USA continued to occupy the leading position with 78% of females being employed in 1970, compared to 63% and 65% in Belgium and Indonesia in that order. By 2000, the proportions of employed women in the studied age group in these nations had all fallen substantially, with America retaining 45%, Indonesia exactly 50%, and Belgium a mere 8%. Japan, in comparison, underwent the smallest drop from 56% in 1970 to 47% 30 years later.