According to a data from a report by the German Insurance Industry (Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft), 665,000 of Germany’s 4 million pensioners aged between 65 and 70 still have a job. The number has risen by 300,000 since the year 2000, tz.de writes today, July 15, 2016 in its printed edition quoting the report. Five of the ten German districts with the highest rate of pensioners still working are located within the Free State of Bavaria.

Passau, Wurzburg and Regensburg are on the places 2-4 for the whole of Germany and in those districts (Landkreis) every third pensioner is still working. The remaining two Bavarian itricts in the Top 10 are Ebersberg and Munich. In both of those districts the number of pensioners still doing a job has roughly doubled since 2000. Although many of the pensioners claim to be working for fun or to remain fit, some are admitting that they are still working because they really need the additional money.

The Sozialverband VdK Deutschland (which is committed to the needs of handicapped, chronically ill and elderly people) Chairwoman Ulrike Mascher point out the obvious: “Our experience tells us that the elderly people who are still working are doing this because they really need the money in order to not fall into the category of people that need financial support to cover living expenses.” Fun and joy is not what motivates most of those people, taken into account that they are mostly stocking up supermarket shelves and cleaning.