There are almost one million more workers over the age of 65 in the UK labour market, according to analysis from the Centre for Ageing Better.
The organisation’s analysis of figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that 11.5% of the UK population is now working past their 65th birthday – double the proportion in 2000, when it was 5.2%.
Most of these workers are self-employed or working part time, the Centre said, but there is a growing number continuing full-time employment up to and beyond the state pension age.
Older workers were more likely to be self-employed than younger age groups, with those over 60 making up one in six of all self-employed people in 2022. In 2011, it was one in nine. The proportion working full time grew from one in four in 2000 to more than one in three.
Age at work
One in four over 50s working part time
A high proportion of workers over 65 are on zero-hours contracts. They are the second most common age group to be on this sort of contract after 16 to 24-year-olds.
The overall workforce grew by 5.4 million between 2000 and 2023, and 976,000 are over the age of 65. This was the second largest increase after 50 to 64 year-olds, who added 3.1 million workers to the total.
Dr Karen Hancock, research and policy officer at the Centre for Ageing Better, said the figures reflected the growing importance of older workers in the labour market.
“Workers with up to 50 years of workplace experience have an incredible wealth of knowledge to share and which will be to the benefit of employers, co-workers and customers,” she said.
“Around half of the substantial growth in numbers of 65+ workers since 2000 is down to demographics and the growth in the older population. The raising of the state pension age for men and women has also been a factor in increasing employment rates.
“Moving the goalposts on planned retirement dates may have compelled some to continue working into their late 60s to help their financial situation.”
Luke Price, senior research and policy manager at the foundation, added that working past state pension age should be a choice rather than a necessity.
“For those who want to do it and can find employment that suits them, it can have positive health, wellbeing and financial outcomes,” he said.
“However, statistics alone do not tell us anything about the quality of the employment of this age group. And we do not know how many more people aged 65 and above would like to work but find age discrimination a barrier to securing employment because you can’t register as unemployed once you’ve reached state pension age.
“There will be some working past state pension age out of financial necessity as they find their private pensions to be inadequate.
“And there are many who will stop working before state pension age because of ill-health or caring responsibilities.
“Some of these people may wish to continue working for longer, and potentially could do with better health support from employers and more flexible employment conditions to fit around caring responsibilities.”
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