http://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/04/lost-generation-unemployed-pandemic-hits-careers-of-over-50s
'Lost generation of unemployed': Covid hits careers of over-50s
unemployed12
Older workers who lose their jobs are more than twice as likely as other
age groups to be unemployed for at least two years. Composite: David
Levene/Getty
People over 50 who lose their jobs more likely to suffer long-term
joblessness than other age groups
Financial insecurity drives stress
Young Britons face Covid jobs crisis
Fix furlough gaps for self-employed, government urged
Amelia Hill
Amelia Hill
@byameliahill
Thu 4 Feb 2021 01.00 EST
67
Lisa Griffiths, a 61-year-old special needs nanny, has spent her career
easily moving from one contract to the next. So when her last, five-year
contract ended recently, she was shocked to find new employment
opportunities far more limited than she had expected.
Then, while she was considering her options, the pandemic hit and work
dried up altogether.
“It’s been a real shock for me, and my fear is that if this enforced
unemployment is not only to do with the pandemic but my age as well – I
have no evidence that it is ageism but I have a strong feeling that it
is – then things are going to get worse and not better,” she said.
UK's Covid unemployed: 'Financial insecurity drives stress and anxiety'
Read more
“If I retire earlier than the state pension age and then my husband
loses his job, it would be a catastrophe,” she added. “I know there are
things like universal credit but we’ve never had to lean on government
support before and I’m not sure that my husband would even entertain the
idea.”
Since the Equality Act 2010 made it illegal to discriminate against
someone based on age, employment rates among people aged 50-plus have
steadily risen. Before the pandemic, rates had reached a historic high,
with a record 10.7 million people aged 50 and over in work – nearly a
third of the UK workforce.
The story of older people and employment was largely one of those rare
things: a good news story that brought almost everyone and everything
with it, individuals, society and the economy alike.
Lisa Griffiths
Lisa Griffiths fears things are going to get worse and not better.
Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
This economic trajectory made everyone a winner, said Lily Parsey from
the International Longevity Centre UK. “One common argument against
greater labour market participation in older age is that it will somehow
prevent younger people from entering paid employment by taking all the
jobs from them,” she said.
Advertisement
This argument is, however, built on false assumptions: in March 2020, at
least 80% of employment growth in the UK was estimated to come from
workers over the age of 50.
There were, of course, parts of the demographic untouched by the good
news. Even before the pandemic, there were about 800,000 people aged
50-64 not in work, who wanted to be. More than 1 million 50-64s were out
of work for health reasons, 300,000 of whom wanted a job.
Nevertheless, things were going in the right direction. But then the
pandemic struck. It has been, of course, disastrous for great swathes of
workers across the board, especially those aged 18-24, whose employment
rate has fallen 3.5 percentage points (ppt) since March compared with
just 0.4 ppt for those aged between 35 and 49. For older workers, the
drop in employment has been somewhere in the middle, at 1 ppt.
But cut the data another way – in terms of percentage increase of
unemployment – and the age group most affected by the pandemic are those
aged 50 or over. There are now 91,000 more unemployed older people than
there were 12 months ago: an increase of a third in a single year,
significantly more than in any other age group.
That third is significantly more than both the national average increase
of 24% and the 25% increase in unemployed people aged 18-24. For those
aged 25-34, the increase was 28%, and for those aged 35-49, the increase
was 19%.
That third represents 407,000 individual stories of later life
unemployment, a group that now makes up one in four of all unemployed
people in the UK.
There are now 91,000 more unemployed older people than there were 12
months ago: an increase of a third in a single year, significantly more
than in any other age group
This matters because despite the advances of the last decade, redundancy
is a particularly age-related problem: people aged over 50 who lose
their jobs are significantly more likely to suffer long-term
unemployment than other age groups, with older workers who lose their
jobs being more than twice as likely as other age groups to be
unemployed for at least two years.
Another worrying point, made by Dr Anna Dixon from the Centre for Ageing
Better, is that the apparently healthy-ish employment rate for those
aged over 50 is masking something else: people who are on furlough, or
who have had their hours cut, are still showing up in this data as
“employed”. But their job may not be safe.
“Over the summer, furlough rates showed a U-shape, with younger and
older workers the most likely to be away from work,” said Dixon.
By September, however, furloughed 55-64s were the least likely to be
fully back at work. “So, while it superficially looks like older workers
will be ‘second-hardest’ hit by job losses in this recession, once we
factor in the fact that it is older workers who are at greatest risk of
long-term unemployment, it is clear that after this pandemic there could
be a lost generation of unemployed over-50s forced into an early
retirement they neither want nor can afford,” said Dixon.
Older workers who lose their jobs are more than twice as likely as other
age groups to be unemployed for at least two years
This, said Stuart Lewis, founder of Rest Less, the jobs site for the
over-50s, is catastrophic for hundreds of thousands of older people.
Contrary to popular belief, he said, most fifty- and sixtysomethings are
not revelling in their gold-plated, final salary pensions – a long-lost
preserve of their parents’ generation – and they haven’t had enough time
under pensions auto-enrolment to have amassed equivalent savings.
Instead, said Lewis, many face a significantly underfunded retirement
and are seeing what savings they do have decimated by the pandemic. This
in turn will lead to a significant long-term drop in their future
retirement income – and spending – which risks stalling the UK’s
economic recovery for years to come.
“Those in their 50s and 60s are in a far more financially precarious
position than most people imagine,” he said. “It’s tragic to think that
more than 626,000 over-50s are now claiming universal credit, meaning
that after three decades in the workplace, they have less than £16,000
of savings to their name to qualify for universal credit.
“It’s also useful to reflect that in the last recession women could
retire at 60 and receive the state pension; today it’s 66,” he added.
“This means that someone made redundant at the age of 55 still has to
find meaningful work, or try to survive on universal credit, for the
next 11 years before they can claim the state pension.”
Everyone agrees that this isn’t just a personal tragedy for the older
generation, it’s a problem for us all: harnessing the potential of
workers, regardless of their age, will be crucial in the post-pandemic
recovery. With an ageing population, we cannot afford to leave anyone
behind.