POSTED: January 28 2019
Record numbers of over-50s in employment

Record numbers of over-50s in employment

Official employment figure`s1 confirms the continued change in workplace age balance with a record number of people aged 50 and over in the UK labour market.

This population now represents nearly one in three (31%) of all workers up from one in five (21%) when these records began in 1992.

The state pension age is rising for both men and women, so we can expect this population to keep growing.

Commenting, Alistair McQueen, Head of Savings and Retirement at Aviva said: “We’ve never seen a population of this age and size in work. They are record breakers. 10.6 million people is more than the populations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.2 And as the state pension age for men and women is now rising, we can expect this population to keep growing.”

The responsibility is on employers to ensure they are supporting workers in their adaptation to a longer working life.

Alistair continues “More must be done by employers to support these record breakers in a fuller working life. We continue to see a collapse in employment participation as we progress through our 50s, from nearly nine in ten active in the labour market at age 50 to less than one in two as we approach our mid-60s.3 This represents a huge waste of talent, experience and potential.

 

Notes:

1 www.ons.gov.uk/employment-and-labour-market/people-in-work/employment-and-employee-types/bulletins/uk-labour-market/january-2019


2 www.ons.gov.uk/people-population-and-community/population-and-migration/population-estimates/bulletins/annual-mid-year-population-estimates/mid-2017


3 www.gov.uk/government/statistics/economic-labour-market-status-of-individuals-aged-50-and-over-trends-over-time-october-2018
4 www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2018/10/aviva-launches-mid-life-mot-for-its-over-45s/