Over-50s starting to feel impact of Covid-19

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New figures on the employment status of over-50s show that older workers are starting to feel the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a jump in people given ‘other’ reasons than sickness or caring for not working . 
   
Amongst 50 to 64-year-olds, 2.2m jobs had been furloughed, representing 27% of eligible employments, new statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions published on Thursday show, slightly lower than the 31% across all furloughed jobs.  
   
The impact of Covid-19 on jobs in this age group is however also shown by Office for National Statistics information which states that 2.1m 50 to 64-year-olds reported that they were temporarily away from work in the April to June 2020 period - three times as many as the 0.7m in the same period one year earlier.  
   

'Other' reason for not working


About 540,000 people over 50 were economically inactive but willing or would like to work; around half said they could not because they were sick, injured or disabled, and 14% said they were ‘looking after home or family’.  
   
However, more than a third (36%) named ‘other’ reasons – this has increased significantly from 22% compared with the same period in 2019. “It is possible that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has driven this increase,” notes the DWP.  
 
Source: DWP
 
   
Overall, employment levels in older age groups have increased compared with previous decades: for those aged 50 to 64, the employment rate increased from 55.8% in 1984 to 72.5% in 2020, and for people aged 65 and over, rose from 4.9% in 1984 to 11.4% in 2020.
  
There is a growing number who continue to work full-time in their early 60s. The proportion of 60 to 64-year-olds in full-time employment has risen by 4 percentage points compared to the same period in 2015, meaning that one in three 60 to 64-year-olds now in full-time employment (34.5%), but women aged 50 and over are considerably more likely to be in part-time employment compared to men of the same age.  
  
The average age of people retiring has increased to 64.2 for women and 65.2 for men over the past two decades, from 61.2 and 63.3 years respectively.  
  
Laura Stewart-Smith, workplace savings manager at provider Aviva, said support is vital as the coronavirus pandemic affects jobs in coming months. 
 
“While this latest data shows high levels of employees working beyond 50, signs of a drop-off in participation as workers progress through their 50s are starting to emerge. This may be driven by the impact on the labour market from the coronavirus pandemic,” she observed. 
  
“As the state pension age rises, it’s increasingly necessary for millions of workers to continue working in their mid-life and beyond. But sharp falls in employment as people age could suggest many are struggling to do this,” believes Stewart-Smith. 
 
Not working is not just negative for the individual, she noted, but also for workplaces, which will feel the considerable drain in skills and expertise that older workers have accumulated. 
 
“It is important for employers to redouble their efforts to promote greater employment flexibility and the value of an ageing workforce by improving coordination of our national response to this challenge,” she said. 
 

How should employees over 50 be supported during this time? 

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