Europeans are living and working for longer. Principal’s CEO says companies aren’t ready for the change

Europeans are living longer than ever. More than one-fifth of the European Union’s population is 65 or older, and the share aged 80 plus is set to more than double by the end of the century.

Deanna Strable, chief executive of Principal Financial Group, believes neither companies nor their staff are ready. “Employers and leaders are going to have to get used to people being in the workforce for a longer amount of time,” she says. “I don’t think we’re all prepared for that.”

Falling birth rates mean fewer young people are entering the workforce, while millions of baby boomers are reaching retirement age. As a result, older workers are make up a larger proportion of the labor market. In 2025, a record two-thirds of 55- to 64-year-olds in the EU were in employment, according to Eurostat .

As people stay in employment for longer, companies will have to adapt their working and hiring practices, job design, and provide training for people later in their careers.

Strable has led Principal since January 2025. The U.S.-based retirement and asset management company works with more than 200,000 American employers, and in Europe it manages money on behalf of pension providers.

Principal has five generations of workers on its payroll. Reskilling and flexible career paths are becoming increasingly important, Strable says. Over the past 18 months, Principal has trained all 19,000 of its employees in AI, offering the courses in different formats because, as she puts it, “some people want to do it very much on their own, other people want to do it with others sitting around the table.” It has also extended its rotation programs, once limited to actuaries, to IT, accounting, and finance, so staff can move into new roles as their careers grow longer rather than feeling the need to move companies.

Strable has spent her entire career at Principal, working her way up through 15 different roles, and thinks the company ‘lifer’ could make a comeback as workers look for employers that will help them adapt rather than gamble on starting again elsewhere. “You can have the equivalent of 10 different jobs with one company,” she says, “or you can start over at 10 different companies.”

Longer life expectancies will also mean people will have to save more for retirement, unless they stay economically active for longer.

This risks exacerbating the pension gender gap. A woman in the EU will spend about four fewer years in paid work than a man, yet she can expect to live five years longer. By the time she retires, she will typically receive a pension 24.5% smaller than a man’s—more than twice the size of the gender pay gap.

Strable says longer lives risks widening that gap unless employers and the pensions industry act. Women tend to earn less, work part-time more often and take career breaks to care for others, so they retire with less saved.