Pensions - Articles - Number of working women 65 plus in sharp fall since pandemic

 Stephen Lowe, group communications director at retirement specialist Just Group, said that since the start of 2020 there had been a fall of nearly 56,000 in the number of employed women aged 65+ to 576,000 compared to a rise of nearly 49,000 to 828,000 for employed men aged 65+.

 “We would expect to see the numbers of older men and older women working to increase and for the gap between the two to narrow due to the ageing population and the recent rises in State Pension Age. That was true up until the pandemic began but since then the gap has widened.

 “Employment for both men and women aged 65+ took a knock in the first half of 2020 but since then the trend has been for employment growth for men but declines for women. The ONS figures also show stubbornly high inactivity rates for workers aged 50-64 since the pandemic began.

 “Overall, the employment prospects for older female workers are not looking as rosy as for the rest of the workforce. It highlights the need for government to consider ways to ensure support is given to older workers who want to keep working and that the skills and experience they have built up through a working life are not lost to the country.”