24 November 2021
Mariska van der Horst (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), Sajia Ferdous (University of Manchester), and Chris Phillipson (University of Manchester) raise some critical issues about the policy of extending working life in the context of Covid-19.
Adjusting to the impact of Covid-19 is raising major issues about the employment prospects of older workers. The Government has re-branded Fuller Workers Lives as 50 Plus: Choices and Rishi Sunak is promoting schemes for the over-50s that will 'offer guidance on later life planning'.
However, the impact of the pandemic has raised the stakes in trying to extend working life:
- What sort of jobs will be available for those coming off furlough or experiencing long-term unemployment?
- How secure will those jobs be?
With State Pension Age (SPA) for men and women now 66 and scheduled to rise to 67 by 2028, such questions need urgent consideration.
Older workers and employment
The effect of Covid-19 highlights the need for a re-think about the kind of jobs we should expect older people to do and under what conditions. Leading up to the start of the pandemic, 61% of those 50 to 69 were in paid work1, representing 31% of the UK workforce.
A large share though still leave employment well before SPA (in 2021, 50% of women aged 60 to 64 and 41% of men2). For men, the average age at which those over 50 are likely to leave work has hardly changed for over a decade: 64.5 in 2006 and 65.1 in 20212.
The pandemic has worsened pressures on many over 50s to leave work ahead of SPA. Cominetti reports a survey showing that among those employed at the start of the Covid crisis (February 2020), 35% of those 60 to 65 were either no longer working by January 2021, or if still working were furloughed, or were earning at least 10% less than they were before the crisis; the figure for those aged 40 to 44 was 20%.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that over a quarter of those furloughed were aged 50 or more, with 3 in 10 thinking they would lose their job with the ending of the scheme. Some groups within the older population have been hit especially hard, notably ethnic minority groups, women in part-time employment, and people with disabilities.
Returning to work
The pandemic is likely to produce complex challenges for those over 50 coming back into the workplace. Research in the USA3 examined disturbances to working life and the impact on mental health of those 55 and over, finding that respondents who had experienced job loss and furloughing experienced higher dissatisfaction with life, depression, and loneliness.
A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) highlighted the issues likely to be faced by those in their 50s and 60s finding new work after the ending of the furlough scheme, noting the lack of experience of many in searching for jobs.
The type of jobs on offer may also be an issue: two-thirds of the growth in employment since 20084 has been in what has been termed 'precarious' forms of work, self-employment, zero-hours contracts, and agency work.
While some of these may meet the needs for flexible work among people 50 and over — 16% of them would like to work fewer hours — very often such jobs entail poor quality work environments, lack of training, and limited career progression.
Developing a post-Covid employment strategy
A post-Covid employment strategy will need to have a number of elements to support the employment of people over 50.
Here, we will focus on just one: delivering an effective policy for achieving healthy ageing in the workplace. The health dimension is a critical area to address if there is to be a recovery in employment rates, with 39% of workers ages 50 to 691 reporting a long-standing health problem.
Extending working life is especially hard on those in low-level occupational groups, where there is a high risk of a health-related exit from the workplace; conversely, good jobs can have a 'genuine protective effect5' for many conditions.
So, how can a 'levelling up' of the workplace be achieved? Building capacity in occupational health will be vital, given the rising demands for the service but cuts in staffing. A 2015 report from the Council for Work and Health shows just one practitioner to every 44,000 workers in occupational medicine, and one in 77,000 in occupational health physiotherapy.
The 'cumulative disadvantages' attached to poor quality work also needs greater recognition: people working in difficult physical jobs should have a right to enhanced health care support to monitor the long-term effects of work.
More research to understand 'what works' in supporting different groups of older workers is vital. A systematic review published in 20215 identified just one evaluation of an initiative to enhance the health of workers around retirement age.
Support in the area of mental health in the workplace may be especially important coming out of the pandemic, given the increase in people worried about losing their jobs or having to apply for different kinds of employment.
A key concern here will be particular ethnic minority groups who showed greater vulnerability to mental health issues6 even before the pandemic. Ethnic minorities have experienced some of the worst effects of Covid-197, reflecting their concentration in low-paid employment, together with the impact of poverty, and poor housing.
Coming out of the pandemic, there is the danger of reinforcing health-related inequalities in the workplace — especially for those with long-term physical and mental health conditions.
Equally, there is the opportunity of creating socially inclusive employment, with transparency over the most appropriate jobs and types of support which different groups of older people need in remaining in or returning to work.