Rebecca and I will be presenting our paper called “Facing up to Work” at 12th International Ethnography Symposium in Manchester this week. Looking forward to meeting old and new colleagues and getting feedback on this new area of our research
On a busy news day for the BBC (see #notonthelist), the increase in state pension age is to be brought forward to 2037. This change impacts those who are currently aged between 39 and 47. In principle this gives those affected 20 years to plan for this change, although future changes are not necessarily ruled out.
The timing of the announcement – at the same time as research reporting that the rate of life expectance increase was slowing – was noted by many as slightly incongruous.
I recently spotted “Renaissance Magazine” at London City Airport and it sparked my curiosity. This is a new magazine, launched in 2017 and will be published three times a year. From its website it aims to:
“break conventions with exquisite fashion editorials featuring models over 40, essays for the mind & soul and interviews with inspiring people from around the world”
and address “the needs and interests of contemporary women over 45”.
You could (at a push) argue I am absolutely their target market – so why didn’t I buy a copy? Because it really doesn’t look that different!
Issue 02 offers the option of ‘choosing‘ your own cover for the ‘body’ issue. However these images raise many of the same issues that are often debated in the literature about constructions of the ‘acceptable’ ageing body (here, still looking like a super model).
This is timely in light of our forthcoming research presentations at conferences this summer in which we examine both our own and others aesthetic labouring and ageing!
The Office for National Statistics produces a monthly report on the UK labour market. Each time I see it I wonder why it records and reports on the work-related activities and status of people ‘aged from 16 to 64’ when we live in a country which has abolished mandatory retirement and state pension ages are steadily rising. Time for a re-think at the ONS?
The headlines for the June bulletin are that:
- the number of people in work increased;
- the number of unemployed people fell; and
- the number of people aged from 16 to 64 not working and not seeking or available to work (economically inactive) also fell.
In terms of trends regarding longer working lives, there was an increase of 60,000 people from last year (up to 1.20 million) who were not looking for work because they had retired. I guess one explanation is that people out of work might choose to self-classify as ‘retired’ rather than as ‘jobseeker’. But the longer term trend is still towards working longer into later life. The figure of 1.20 million is 358,000 fewer compared with the same period in 2011. The ONS attribute this to the ongoing changes to state pension age for women which has resulted in fewer women now retiring between the ages of 60 and 65.
Last week the Telegraph reported on a South Korean Tech Start up called ‘EverYoung’ where all the employees are over 55, with the oldest employee reported as 83. It reports that “The company, founded by 56-year-old executive Chung Eunsung, aims to address South Korea’s demographic timebomb and challenge a corporate culture steeped in age discrimination in favour of the young”. This is no small operation either with a total of 450 employees. While some of the policies here sit uneasy in a UK employment context – the company operates “a strictly ageist policy of only employing staff over the age of 55” according to the Telegraph article – the challenge to the common stereotype that tech start ups are only for the young is a refreshing change. Nevertheless some aspects of stereotypes remain here as the article emphasises the presence of blood pressure monitors and benefits include cash bonuses for grandchildren.
Many thanks to Martin Hyde, Associate Professor in Gerontology at the Centre for Innovative Ageing, Swansea University for drawing our attention to a Special Issue on Constrained Agency in Later Working Lives in the journal Work, Aging & Retirement.
Work and working in later life and how this impacts on the notion of retirement is very much up for debate at the moment. We have reported a number of illustrative stories over the years on this blog, for example, individuals seeking to be allowed to work for longer but also occupational groups seeking to protect their retirement entitlement at ages below the current state pension age.
The Special Issue looks the role of structure and agency which are seen to play an important (but often unexplored) role in research on late careers and retirement. In this context, structure means social structures that constrain or enable the choices that individuals make around retirement. These could be social policies, social norms as well as an individual’s social background. Agency refers to the notion that individuals make their own plans and choices.
The dual focus of the articles is:
- exploring the labour market situations in which individual agency is constrained against a background of population ageing, longer working lives, and the growth in ‘flexible’ forms of work;
- exploring which individuals are being constrained in their agency during later working lives and in retirement processes.
Happily too the articles in the Special Issue are open access rather than behind a paywall. Here are the details of the individual papers with links:
Hidden in Plain Sight? Does Stricter Employment Protection Legislation Lead to an Increased Risk of Hidden Unemployment in Later Life?
Authors: Martin Hyde; Ellen Dingemans
Are “Voluntary” Self-Employed Better Prepared for Retirement Than “Forced” Self-Employed?
Authors: Douglas A. Hershey; Hendrik P. van Dalen; Wieteke Conen; Kène Henkens
Older Workers’ Emotional Reactions to Rising Retirement Age: The Case of the Netherlands
Authors: Hanna van Solinge; Kène Henkens
Change in Job Satisfaction Negatively Predicts Change in Retirement Intentions
Authors: Hannes Zacher; Cort W. Rudolph
Examining Bridge Employment From a Self-employment Perspective—Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study
Authors: Monika E. von Bonsdorff; Yujie Zhan; Yifan Song; Mo Wang
Happy reading!
A new campaign, which has been variously called the ‘silver quota’, is highlighting the need for business to focus on recruiting ‘older workers’ to address the UK skills gap.
These companies are highlighted as already committing to this target and publishing age data: viva, Atos, Barclays, The Co-operative Group, Home Instead Senior Care, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), Mercer, and Boots UK are the first employers to publically pledge their commitment to meeting this target and have already published their age data.
However I was slightly confused as to the way in which this data might a) recorded b) organised and c) utilised. The BITC appear to ask for raw numbers in two categories: 50-64 and 65-69 which I find slightly baffling! Why not collect ALL AGE related data and use the same size chronological age bands. Further this does appear to suggest that 69 might be the upper end of ‘older workers’ when there is no default retirement age.
We have also highlighted before the issue of the broad and generic age label “older” to apply to everyone over 50! We are not alone as this article usefully points out:
Having covered the debate on Radio Four, I thought I should be fair and comment on some issues of age I heard on Radio One driving home the other night (news in the morning, music in the evening – it works for me). Greg James has a regular ‘game’ called “What’s my age again” (from a recent song) in which (mainly young from what I’ve heard) callers are quizzed as to clothes they wear, films they’ve seen, objects they remember and then Greg and an other guy guess their age. OK so it might seem banal but it was interesting how many stereotypes come out during that short section. The other day it was combined with a discussion on whistling which apparently is for ‘old people’ ….of 60 who are also in ‘retirement’. Maybe this seems trivial but its just another way age stereotypes are perpetuated .
Yesterday’s Today programme on Radio Four tackled the General Election via the lens of age – and the notions of generations in particular. In a particularly lively live broadcast from Bath “old people” were accused of having too much whilst “the young” were attacked for being too lazy and disengaged. By default I assume this latter accusation must have excluded those who got up early to participate in the debate – which does kind of illustrate the risk of stereotyping.
The issue of house prices obviously came up, and rather unfortunately the impression seem to be created that being old automatically entailed ownership of a £1.5million Georgian house. (It doesn’t – unless I’m not quite old enough yet and someone will just turn up with some house keys in a few years time? No I don’t think so either.)
While there were attempts to ask if things were actually different generationally – that is to say is it any different for the young now than the when ‘old people’ were young – on the whole the debate kept to a generic old v young divide.
There was a useful analysis of issues regarding pension and likely financial status of future pensioners (and its not pretty). This is of course a challenging issue which affects many different age groups. As now there will be a huge variation in wealth among pensioners – being old is not a guarantee of wealth now or in the future.
Katrina Pritchard
Rebecca Whiting
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