Labour market
More older people in employment between 1996 and 2008
Economic activity status of women and men aged 50-59/64, UK, 1996, 2002 and 2008
Women and men aged between 50 and the state pension age (SPA) who were employed in the UK rose to 70 per cent and 73 per cent respectively in spring 2008. This compares with 1996 when the figures were 61 per cent and 70 per cent.
Over the same period, there was a drop in the percentage of economically ‘inactive’ women aged 50 to SPA who were looking after family, from 12 per cent in 1996 to 8 per cent in 2008. There was also a decrease in the percentage of men of the same ages who were economically inactive due to sickness or disability, from 17 per cent to 12 per cent.
The figures for ‘early’ retirement show no change. The percentages of women and men aged 50 to SPA classed as economically inactive due to retirement remained the same over the period, at about 4 per cent for women and 8 per cent for men.
About 75 per cent of men aged 50 to SPA who were married or in a civil partnership and living with their wife or partner were employed. Only 9 per cent were economically inactive due to sickness or disability. This compares with about 60 per cent and 22 per cent respectively of those who were single, separated, divorced or widowed.
Marital status has an effect in the economic activity status of women of post retirement age. About a third of women of SPA to age 69 who were separated from their husband or civil partner, divorced or had a civil partnership legally dissolved, were employed, compared with less than a quarter of women of the same age group in any other marital status.
Economic activity status of women and men aged 50-59/64 by hours per week spent in caring, England, 2006
Caring commitments - looking after someone else – also impact on labour market participation at older ages. In England in 2006, 17 per cent of women aged 50 to SPA and 10 per cent of women aged SPA and over had looked after someone in the previous week. The percentage of men who had cared for someone in the last week (8 per cent) was the same in both age groups.
About half of women and less than a third of men aged 50 to SPA who had cared for someone for 35 hours or more in the previous week were economically active. This compares with about three quarters of women and men of this age who did not have caring commitments. Participation in the labour force was slightly higher among women than men who had cared for someone for less than 35 hours in the previous week.
Sources: Labour Force Survey (LFS), Office for National Statistics Annual Population Survey (APS), Office for National Statistics English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), Wave 3, 2005/06
Notes:
LFS uses the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions for employment, unemployment and economic inactivity. More information is available at: How exactly is employment measured
A set of questions asked in ELSA ‘Work and pensions’ module was used to derive the variable for economic activity and inactivity; this gave the best approximation to ILO/LFS definitions.
‘Carer’ refers to people who described themselves as ‘looking after someone’ in the past week. This includes looking after a spouse or partner, parents, parents in law, children, grandchildren, friends or neighbours. Respondents are routed to this question if they answered in a previous question that they had cared for someone in the previous month. For the analysis people with no caring commitments refer to those who had not cared for someone in the last month.
State Pension Age (SPA) refers to the current state pension age: 60 for women and 65 for men.
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