Aging
Aging is characterized by the natural biological process innate to any human being that occurs throughout their lifetime. At the same time, the phenomenon of demographic aging directly impacts the amount of labor available in each organization and country (Cepellos, 2018).
Derived from reduced fertility and mortality rates and increased life expectancy, and improved health and hygiene systems, concerns about economic expansion, growth, and workforce shortages have arisen as a result of population aging, as it is projected that unless there is a change in work patterns and retirement age the vast majority of individuals will be of retirement age (Settels, 2022). Thus, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development projections indicated that between 2000 and 2020, there would be an increase of 63% of the labor force aged 50 to 64 (The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2020).
This is already verified in developed countries such as those belonging to the European Union, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Israel, China, and Mexico, among others, thus showing that this is a worldwide phenomenon (Rinsky-Halivni et al., 2022; Rodriguez & Saenz, 2022; Stengård et al., 2022; Stone & Harkiolakis, 2022; Zhang & Wood, 2022). To combat labor shortages in developed countries due to an aging population and a low birth rate, most countries have adopted policies such as postponing the retirement age to extend working life in order to mitigate a possible shortage of workers in the current labor market, and as aging has become a global phenomenon, this practice has also become prevalent worldwide (Rinsky-Halivni et al., 2022; Rodriguez & Saenz, 2022; Stengård et al., 2022; Stone & Harkiolakis, 2022; Zhang & Wood, 2022). On the other hand, this issue is only being discovered in underdeveloped countries such as Bangladesh. However, experts are already saying that the retirement age will have to be raised for retirees to be economically self-sufficient and independent (Islam et al., 2022).
Times have changed, and currently, many individuals intend to work beyond retirement age, either because they wish to remain active, either physically or intellectually, or to make up for some insufficiencies in the pension they will receive, or even due to the difficulties of social security systems. Simultaneously, new knowledge about physiology and human anatomy and cumulatively about human aging was developed and acquired (Pinto et al., 2015). Individuals must realize that aging does not translate into something negative but may very well be the opposite to be something positive for the individual, such as improved health, financial security, and social and family participation (Pinto et al., 2015). Due to an increasingly aging population, but also more active, it was considered necessary to define the concept of Active Aging based on three pillars: health, participation, and security, with the perspective that people can maintain productive lives in society (World Health Organization, 2012).