Older workers, women and the self-employed fuelling the UK workforce
Today’s figures show an annual increase in employment with 282,000 more workers than a year earlier taking the total to 32.69 million. The increase is fuelled by the continuing rise of employment rates among those aged 50 and above (up 287,000 on the year), more women (up 202,000 on the year) and a further big increase in self-employment.
“The increase in older workers is in part down to the way retirement is viewed. Increasingly it’s seen as much more fluid with people choosing to remain in employment for longer, but doing so in a reduced capacity, as they transition into retirement at a pace that suits them. Changes to the state pension age for women are also likely to have contributed to the increase in the employment rate among older women.
The number of self-employed continues to rise
“In recent years, the self-employed population has been growing by a higher percentage than the employed population. But because the self-employed population remains far smaller, the actual increase in the number of self-employees has tended to be far below that for employees. The latest figures show that compared to a year earlier, the number of self-employed workers has risen by 162,000 far outstripping the 97,000 increase in employees. This further reinforces the need for Government to focus on policies which reflect modern working practices including self-employed and gig economy workers. Top of the list must be addressing the pensions inequality under which employees benefit from being automatically enrolled with a 3% employer pension contribution while for the self-employed, there is no ‘default’ pension savings.”;
ONS UK Figures
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