United States: Unemployment of Older (65 Plus) Workers Increases

According to unemployment statistics from December 2008, the current economic slowdown has substantially increased the unemployment rate for older Americans. In the fact sheet prepared for the Urban Institute, "Senior Unemployment Rate Hits 31-Year High", unlike most previous recessions, Richard W. Johnson points out that 5.1% of workers age 65 and older were unemployed, a higher share than at any time since March 1977.

In the current recession, the age-65-and-older unemployment rate has increased by 1.7 percentage points since November 2007, the last month before it began, while 13 months into the severe 1981–82 recession—-the most recent downturn to have lasted as long as the current one—-the number of unemployed older adults had not increased at all. However, Johnson points out that "the recession has not yet discouraged many older job seekers. Since November 2007, the share of adults not in the labor force has not declined at ages 55 to 64 or at ages 65 and older."

Source: Urban Institute Research Summary (January 14, 2009)

United States: Older Workers Labor Participation Rates Examined

The Congressional Research Service has updated its research report on "Older Workers: Employment and Retirement Trends" to reflect census data suggesting that a trend of reduced participation in the labor force by older workers could affect economic growth. However, the report also notes that benefit changes may encourage higher participation rates.

Specifically, the data shows that while the number of people between the ages of 55 and 64 will grow by about 11 million between 2005 and 2025, the number of people who are 25 to 54 years old will grow by only 5 million. With respect to labor force participation, in 2007, 91% of men and 75% of women aged 25 to 54 participated in the labor force, but just 70% of men and 58% of women aged 55 to 64 were either working or looking for work.

On the other hand, the report notes that the rate of employment among persons age 55 and older is influenced by general economic conditions, eligibility for Social Security benefits, the availability of health insurance, and the prevalence and design of employer-sponsored pensions. Thus, participation rates among these older workers may be affected by the trend away from defined-benefit pension plans that offer a monthly annuity for life to defined contribution plans that typically pay a lump-sum benefit. In additin, the declining percentage of employers that offer retiree health insurance may result in more people continuing to work until they are eligible for Medicare at 65.

Source: Congressional Research Service Summary (September 15, 2008)

Ohio: Study Shows Older Workers To Remain in Workforce

According to research conducted by Miami University's Scripps Gerontology Center, more workers over the age of 55 are expected to stay in the workforce in Ohio, with the proportion of older workers in the state's workforce expected to rise from 16.7% percent to 22.4% from 2006 to 2016--an increase of 34% during that 10-year period. The study ("Ohio's Aging Workforce: Opportunities and Challenges for Ohio's Employers"), authored by Lydia K. Manning and Shahla A. Mehdizadeh, focused on anticipated age-related changes in Ohio’s workforce and the effect these changes might have on employers, employees and society.

Among other things, the authors note that two-thirds of Ohioans age 55 to 64 are expected to be in the state's workforce in 2016, roughly 20% of Ohioans age 65 and older are expected to be in the state's workforce in the year 2016, and, by 2016, two-thirds of all job openings in Ohio are expected to be for positions replacing retirees. Circumstances keeping people in the workforce include the elimination of traditional pension plans by many private employers, stock market losses eroding the value of 401(k) plans, and need for many people to retain access to employer-based health insurance.

Sources: Miami University's Scripps Gerontology Center "Ohio's Aging Workforce: Opportunities and Challenges for Ohio's Employers"; AHN "More Workers Over Age 55 Expected To Remain In Workforce" (September 12, 2008)

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Spotlight Highlights Trends towards More Older Workers

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)has issued a spotlight on older workers, finding that between 1977 and 2007, employment of workers 65 and over increased 101%, compared to a much smaller increase of 59% for total employment. For men over 65, the increase was 75%, but for women it was 147%. In addition, BLS notes that while the number of employed people age 75 and over is relatively small (0.8% of the employed in 2007), they had the most dramatic gain--increasing 172% between 1977 and 2007.

Among other topics addressed by the BLS reports:

• This increase does not just reflect the aging of the baby-boom population, since none had yet reached age 65.
• While part-time work among older workers began trending upward from 1990 to 1995, that trend has had a marked reversal with full-time employment rising sharply, with the number of older workers on full-time work schedules nearly doubling between 1995 and 2007 and the number working part-time rising just 19%; full-timers accounted for a majority among older workers, with 56% in 2007, up from 44% in 1995.
• In 1977, about one-third of employed women 65 and older were married, but by 2007, married women accounted for nearly one-half of these workers.

BLS expects the growth in employment to continue. During the period 2006-2016, workers age 55-64 are expected to climb by 36.5% and the number of workers between the ages of 65 and 74 and those aged 75 and up are predicted to soar by more than 80%.

BLS also provides an audio file of this report.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics "Spotlight on Older Workers (July 2008)

Denmark: Study Reports Growth in Employment among People 60 and Older

According to an English summary posted on eSangathan.com, a report prepared by Denmark's Economic Council of the Labour Union ("Arbejderbevægelsen Erhvervsråd") shows that, among the employed people over 60, the number of persons employed have gone up with 45.000 persons since 2004. The highest growth has been in the group of people age 60-62, while, compared to the size of the workforce, the highest percentage has been for people age 65, where the growth has been from 8.000 to 13.000 in three years.

The Council's report suggests that this growth is not only due to the higher number of people in that age group, but rather that there it represents a change in behavior among these people--they have simply chosen to stay longer at the labor market.

Full report in Danish is also available.

Source: eSangathan.com "Great growth in work frequency among elders in Denmark" (July 17, 2008)

U.S. Economic Troubles Leading to Delays in Retirement

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Levitz reports that "many aging Americans are delaying retirement, electing labor over leisure in uncertain times" as the falling real-estate and stock markets erode their savings. Among other things, she notes how as houses decline in value, fewer people feel confident enough to retire, even if they plan to continue living in them, and as the stock market declines, older workers don't have years to make that up. As a result, they worry that their investments will diminish to the point that they won't have enough money to get through retirement.In addition to anecdotal evidence, she writes:

In February, the proportion of people ages 55 to 64 in the work force rose to 64.8%, up 1.5 percentage points from last April. That translates to more than an additional million people in the job pool, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The ranks of those 65 and over in the work force rose to 16.2% from 16% in the same time span -- meaning 212,000 more hands on deck. So far, the numbers for March continue to show a "sharp" increase, says Steve Hipple, a department economist.

Levitz also reports that investment advisers and retirement planners at more than a dozen firms "say they are seeing large numbers of older workers put off retirement as the housing and stock-market troubles have deepened."

Source: Wall St. Journal "Americans Delay Retirement As Housing, Stocks Swoon" (April 1, 2008); also reprinted in Atlanta Journal Constitution (April 1, 2008)

Australia: More Workers Keep Working after 65

According to an analysis of recent Australian Bureau of Statistics releases, the number of older people working beyond 65 has jumped by almost half in three years, perhaps foreshadowing a landmark change in Australians' attitudes to retirement. Writing for The Age, Tim Colebatch suggests that having over 250,000 people staying in the workforce after reaching the traditional retirement age might indicate that employers battling a tight labor market are throwing retirement ages out the window.

Colebatch writes that the shift in slightly younger workers may be even more dramatic. In 2007, almost half of those in their early 60's were working, up from one in three a decade ago, and barely one in four a generation ago.

Source: The Age "Older workers turn backs on retirement" (March 26, 2008)

Canada: Older Workers Helping Trend to Shorter Work Weeks

A study from Statistics Canada shows that fewer full-time Canadian workers are putting in long hours on the job, with older workers providing a significant part of the decline. According to "Hours polarization revisited", published in Perspectives on Labour and Income, in 2006, full-time workers put in 40.8 hours on the job on average, down from 41.5 hours in 1997, with men trending down from working long weeks (49 hours or more) and women trending up from short-term or part-time work to regular workweeks of 30 to 40 hours.

With respect to older workers (55 and above), the report found a shift away from working very long hours and and noted, in this group, the largest growth in working between 15 and 39 hours. This brought their standard workweek down 0.5 hours to 36.3 in 2006.

Interestingly, the increase in working 15 to 29 hours by older workers was for men only. While a larger proportion of older men worked 15 to 29 hours in 2006, fewer worked a 40-hour schedule (or 49 hours or more). This might indicate that older men are phasing into retirement as more of them cut back their hours or take on part-time hours after their career jobs are finished. In 2006, almost three in four men aged 55 and over worked part time out of personal preference compared with one in four men 25 to 54.

The survey also noted that older workers were becoming a larger segment of the workforce as their share of employment "increased from 10% in 1997 to 14% in 2006, while the share of core-age workers declined (from 75% to 70%) and the share of young workers remained at 15%."

Source: Statistics Canada The Daily (March 18, 2008)

Additional Source: Regina (CA) Leader-Post "Men working fewer hours: StatsCan" (March 18, 2008)

Canada: Median Age of Workforce Goes over 40 for First Time in 2006

Statistics Canada's review of the 2006 census shows that the median age of the labor force surpassed 40 years for the first time--rising from 39.5 years in 2001 to 41.2 years in 2006. The percentage of older employees also grew, so that, in 2006, workers aged 55 and older accounted for 15.3% of the total labor force, up from 11.7% in 2001.

Farmers continued to have the highest median age of all occupations in the country: 52 in 2006; up from 51 five years earlier. Farmers and farm managers aged 55 or older in 2006 accounted for 42% of the total in the occupation. The occupations with the next highest median age were real estate agents and property administrators, followed by ministers of religion, bus drivers and other transit operators, senior managers in health, education, social and community services, and senior government managers.

Source: Statistics Canada "Canada's Changing Labour Force, 2006 Census: Findings" (March 4, 2008)

South Korea: Workers Over 65 Are Over 11 Percent of Workforce

According to published reports, workers aged 65 or above accounted for 11.2% of South Korea's total workforce in 2007, up from 10.8% in 2006 and 5.9% in 1985. The National Statistical Office (NSO) reports that the number of senior workers reached 1.52 million in 2007--up 75.1% percent from 869,000 in 1997--as the number of Koreans aged over 65 increased by 66% percent to 4.87 million in 2007 from 1997.

Local companies increasingly prefer to hire workers on an irregular and temporary basis with little job security and lower wages to meet their manpower demand. Older workers who have already retired from previous jobs are willing to accept the lower-paying jobs.

Source: The Korea Times "Senior Workers Account for 11% of Total Workforce" (February 10, 2008)