The reporting of age in the UK has changed.

The latest employment statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) contain a significant change to the way the figures are reported. The concept of the ‘working age’ population has been dropped.

No longer is there any reporting in the monthly Statistical Bulletin on the population aged 16 to state pension age (SPA). Instead the focus has switched to people age 16 to 64 and then those aged 65+.

A small change you might think but it means that the statistics for the number of people who are employed, for those who are economically active or inactive are now broken down into the following categories:

16 and over
16-64
16-17
18-24;
25-34
35-49
50-64
65+

So what does the change mean? If we take July’s figures, the number of people aged 50 to SPA in work was 6.6 million and the employment rate was 71.1%; in the August figures the number of people aged 50-64 in work was 7.24 million and the employment rate was 64.5%.

Similarly, the number of women aged 50-SPA reported as being in work in July’s ONS figures was 2.68 million with an employment rate of 70.7%; August’s release reports 3.32 million women aged 50-64 in
work with an employment rate of 58.1%.

Many thanks to TAEN for explaining these changes so well. Dick Stroud