Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
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132<br />
<strong>Working</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>ageing</strong><br />
Guidance <strong>and</strong> counselling for mature learners<br />
of 2010, while rates have fallen for prime-age workers (Office of National<br />
Statistics, 2011).<br />
The age of 50 is an important dividing line in the labour market. After that<br />
point, age discrimination in recruitment begins to be relatively common, <strong>and</strong><br />
ill health begins to drive people out of active employment in significant<br />
numbers. Although most of the latter are quite capable of some kind of work,<br />
the market is not good at supporting such redeployment (Black, 2008), <strong>and</strong><br />
studies of occupation, life expectancy <strong>and</strong> health make it clear that those<br />
working in some industries have very much better chances than others<br />
(Marmot, 2010).<br />
However, the labour market continues to change after 50, becoming more<br />
part-time (<strong>and</strong> part-time working is, by European st<strong>and</strong>ards, relatively<br />
common), <strong>and</strong> concentrating after 60 increasingly in some sectors <strong>and</strong><br />
occupations. During the 50s, the market loses its top <strong>and</strong> bottom. At the top a<br />
proportion of wealthy people retire to pursue other interests, while at the<br />
bottom, those in poor health <strong>and</strong> on very low pay are forced out, <strong>and</strong> unable<br />
to find alternative forms of employment suited to their skills. However, during<br />
the 60s the process reverses, with disappearance of middle-range jobs, as<br />
the market divides increasingly between a minority in high-skilled professional<br />
<strong>and</strong> technical occupations (around 25% of workers in their late 60s), <strong>and</strong> a<br />
much larger group in relatively low-skilled ones. Among the latter are some<br />
who are continuing a lifetime of such work, while others have moved from<br />
more skilled <strong>and</strong> highly paid work, either because of failure to find a job which<br />
uses their skills <strong>and</strong> experience, or through a conscious choice to move to<br />
something less dem<strong>and</strong>ing.<br />
A second important factor is the changing nature of womenʼs work. The<br />
skills at work surveys have been studying the skills content of work regularly<br />
since the 1980s, examining the skills <strong>and</strong> qualifications required for entry to<br />
particular jobs, <strong>and</strong> the time taken to become fully proficient (Felstead et al.,<br />
2007). This is a much more subtle measure of skills in the labour market than<br />
formal qualifications, <strong>and</strong> it shows not only a steady rise in the skills of most<br />
jobs over 30 years, but a much more dramatic rise in the skills of older<br />
womenʼs work. Where older women were, 30 years ago, almost exclusively<br />
concentrated in low-skilled manual work, those in their 50s are now working<br />
at comparable levels (though not for comparable pay) to men (Felstead,<br />
2009).<br />
Perhaps the most important division in the older market, however, is<br />
between insiders <strong>and</strong> outsiders. For those in relatively secure employment,<br />
who are known to make a contribution, the chances of staying longer in work