A growing number of older people in Germany are choosing to remain economically active even after they have started receiving their old-age pension. According to preliminary findings from the 2025 Microcensus published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), 14 percent of pensioners between the ages of 65 and 74 were still employed in some capacity.
This marks a one-percentage-point increase compared with the previous year, when the figure stood at 13 percent. The data also reveal a clear gender gap, with 16 percent of male pensioners continuing to work compared with 11 percent of female pensioners.
The likelihood of staying employed after retirement falls steadily the older a pensioner gets. Nearly one in five people aged 65 or 66 who were already receiving a pension were still working, but by the time pensioners reached 73 or 74, that share had dropped to just 8 percent.
Education level also plays a notable role in whether retirees choose to keep working. Among pensioners with higher educational qualifications, 18 percent remained employed, compared with 12 percent of those with a medium level of education and only 10 percent among those with lower educational attainment. Destatis suggests that one possible explanation is that better-educated retirees are more likely to continue working simply because they enjoy their jobs, rather than out of financial necessity.
Looking at the type of work older employees perform, the vast majority, 73 percent, of pensioners who continued working did so as employees, while the remaining 27 percent were self-employed. Among those working as employees, nearly two-thirds, or 65 percent, were in marginal employment, commonly known in Germany as a "Minijob."
In 2025, marginal employment was defined as earning no more than 556 euros per month, or working for a maximum of three months or up to 70 working days over the course of the year.
Working pensioners in Germany typically scale back their hours considerably rather than continuing full-time schedules. Four in ten employed retirees worked fewer than 10 hours per week, making this the most common arrangement by far. A further 25 percent worked between 10 and just under 20 hours weekly, while 12 percent put in 20 to just under 30 hours, and 9 percent worked between 30 and just under 40 hours.
At the other end of the spectrum, 13 percent of employed pensioners worked more than 40 hours a week. This pattern was seen far more frequently among the self-employed than among those in dependent employment: 28 percent of self-employed pensioners worked such extended hours, compared with only 8 percent of employed pensioners in dependent roles.
The figures are drawn from the 2025 Microcensus, an annual sample survey in which roughly one percent of Germany's population is surveyed.
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