Bryan HayAs The Centre for Ageing Better calls for raising the employment rate of workers aged 50-64 to 75%, research from SunLife reveals that most of today’s working over-50s want to continue working into their 60s and beyond, despite facing significant barriers.
The study found that only 24% of working over-50s plan to retire early, compared to 54% of current retirees who did so. Additionally, 39% of over-50s prefer to keep working either full-time (15%) or part-time (24%) after reaching the state pension age, even if they could afford to retire fully. Among the retired respondents, a fifth delayed their retirement to continue working, while 39% of the current working cohort of over-50s plan to work beyond retirement age.
Mark Screeton, CEO at SunLife, commented: “Our research certainly supports the Centre for Ageing Better’s findings that older workers could offer a huge boost to the economy, but they are being let down by the labour market. According to our latest Life Well Spent report – a survey of 2,000 people aged 50+ – most people over 50 want to keep working into their 60s and beyond. But our 2020 study, Retiring Ageism, found that 35% of people over 50 have felt they couldn’t apply for a job because of their age. And, disappointingly, the Centre for Ageing Better has found a similar number reporting ageism in the workplace four years on. That’s a huge barrier to older workers remaining in – or re-entering – the workplace.
“Older workers often have other responsibilities that can make it difficult to work if employers are unable or unwilling to be flexible. For example, we found that 54% of grandparents in their 50s and 60s look after their grandchildren for free – spending an average of over twenty hours a week doing so. When you consider the fact that most of these grandparents still work themselves, it’s easy to see how an ageist labour market – combined with limited childcare options – is causing issues, and why many over-50s who want to work, can’t.
“People in their 50s, 60s and 70s can bring a huge amount of experience, knowledge, and wisdom to the workplace. It’s really important that if they want to work, they are given the opportunity to do so.”
