The number of over 65’s continuing to work is on the up

15 May 2018

The number of individuals choosing to work beyond age 65 continues to steadily increase.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently reported that for the period December 2017 to February 2018 there were approximately 1.2 million people over the age of 65 remaining in employment, out of a total UK workforce of 32.3 million. This compares to only 478,000 over 65’s working in 1992.

The ONS report also showed that 742,000 were men and 454,000 were women and that 57.3% were employed on a part-time basis and 42.7% were employed on a full-time basis.

These figures show that the number of people choosing to continue to work beyond age 65 has been steadily increasing in recent years. Although a sharp increase in numbers might have been expected in 2011 when the default retirement age was removed (which previously enabled employers to impose a compulsory retirement age) the results published did not show this.