To wonder how people will find jobs in their late 60s?

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i was just thinking about pension ages, prompted by the Waspi thread and also fact that I spend a lot of time worrying about my own retirement.

i know the pension age has to rise but at the same time I think it will create even more inequality. There will be people with private pensions who can retire at 55 and then those who can’t - and are likely to struggle to stay employed until they can get the state pension - which is likely to be 70 soon.

i my professional job there is an expectation that people retire at around 55. There are no people in their 60s. When I look at people employed in retail, etc I also only see people in their early 60s maximum.

how is someone aged 65 supposed to find a new job?

if anything, I feel like there is more ageism now than ever before. Particularly in relation to older women.

The problem starts earlier than that unfortunately. If you're in a professional job and get made redundant, it's extremely difficult to get another job at a similar level from your early 50s. Moving into a lower paid retail job, often the only job available, is very hard. Organisations think you're not fit enough or won't fit in with a younger workforce - both not true. So many become independent business consultants, like I did. But it's highly competitive and only realistic for higher flyers and those prepared to graft.

Unfortunately too, jobs in the private sector are no longer for life and its the older workers who are let go first in a recession. Like the one we are headed for right now.

There won't be enough younger people to do the work that needs to be done so employers will have no choice but to hire older people.
When there's a shortage of workers they can't pick and choose 🤷🏻‍♀️

There’s already a lot of outsourcing overseas going on. If you’re working IT there’s a chap abroad that will do your job for the 10th of the Price .

@ILoveJSmith The tax you paid whilst working funded the government whilst you were working. Not now. It funds nothing now. Younger people are paying everything for you now unless you pay tax.

I don't have much sympathy for people who didn’t pay into a pension. I guess they must have been living under a stone. I know a few who relied on property prices but we have millions who didn’t think about pensions and now want money from the state paid for by young people who cannot afford houses!

I am about to turn 59 and job hunting, as a senior technology manager. Its going fairly well so far, but I do make sure my CV doesn't give much idea of my age. I have colleagues in their 60s, more men than women, but then my line of work is more men than women anyway.

I think it is harder now, but not impossible.

It's all fine if you are already in a job but it gets harder to find a job in your 50s let alone 60s. I worked from age 16 to 50 in one job . I was born in the 50s so most didn't go to uni, and jobs which now require a degree did not in the 70s.
Then decided on a change of direction. It's impossible to hide your age on job applications because you have to put education history on there.

I did obtain a couple of interesting jobs eventually and the ones I succeeded in getting were those where interviewers were older women. May have been coincidence but I got the impression they viewed me differently than recruiters in their 20s or 30s did.

It's also true that for many people health niggles start to show when you are in your 50s. These may be perfectly manageable in a job / career you have done for years but again make it harder to switch or find a new job.

Everything is a bit later now! More people stay in education for longer
People are later getting married and having kids
Later retiring
Later dying

The idea of 55 being a being a retirement age feels like a remnant of the past. Some people are still doing the school run for primary age kids. I'll still have teenagers at home and I was a fairly average age for kids amongst my peers.

Women trying to ressurect their career after kids are doing it in their 40-50's, these days.

Employing someone at 55 may have felt pointless when they'd have retired at 60, bit you could get 15 years of then working for you now. It's not old any more but attitudes to this are slower to switch than delaying other things in life.

It's tough being in the classroom over 60. Especially if you like to give the kids extra before exams and lunchtime support for those struggling on a topic. I gave my absolute all everyday, helping at after-school events and think I just burned myself out. Good luck with teaching up to 68. I think it's too much and teachers should be able to drop back to part time after about 62.

I think a lot of younger people don't realise that work pensions/ private pensions, just weren't a thing years ago. Workplace pensions only became compulsory in about 2012. And when I started work, in the 1970's, they tended to only be offered by certain employers and then, only to employees at certain levels. My FIL worked for a worldwide company and, because of his level, could pay in to the company pension scheme. My friends husband, worked for the same company but on the shop floor so to speak, and wasn't allowed to be in the scheme. Their widows had/have very different lifestyles, partly because of this. I worked in the public sector and was in a scheme. Another friend whose husband worked for a huge world renowned company, at a high level (think working with foreign governments to design the systems they wanted) had no private pensions because company didn't offer one. Certainly, a high number of my friends from school would not have paid into a pension because they simply did not work in the sort of places that would have one and unless they had a financial advisor, probably wouldn't even have known they could pay into one independently.
As soon as our children started work we advised them to pay into a pension. And they have already begun saving for the grandchildren. But years ago, within my working life, this was just not a possibility.

Edited for typos.

I work in the NHS back office role and it’s completely normal for people in their 60s to be working. Many come back on flexible retirement part time. It’s a great way to ease into retirement and pass on their experience. Harder for ward nurses but they can move sideways in outpatients or research for example which is less physical. Lots of senior managers have worked their way up from clinical roles and have a lot of experience. I think having opportunities for moving into less physical roles and going part time can ease people into the end of their careers.

@AndyPandyismyhero Im nearly 70. Of course I understood about needing a pension. So did others. They just decided not to bother. DH was self employed for 40 years. He paid into pensions. We didn’t have financial advisers. We just knew we needed a pension. I don’t get this waiting to be told scenario. They just didn’t want to save. No doubt had holidays etc. It was a calculated choice for many. I do know some manual jobs were not in the company pension scheme but that has not applied for decades now. Most people retiring now have had time to save.

One of my children's nannies is in her mid-70s and is stronger and fitter than me! It really depends on the person. If you are physically well and capable there are people who hugely value experience.

I haven't had a day off work sick in over 20 years. I'm overweight, but that doesn't affect my job.

So how can you contribute say 10% of your income during 30-40 years and then expect that to be enough to live well on for another 30 years? The maths don’t add up.

@Startinganew32 you're absolutely right, there's no way that could work unless someone was in the top 0.1% of earners, so it is obvious people need to save far more than 10% of salary into their pensions if they want to have the option of a relatively early retirement. Those who choose not to do so are taking a huge gamble on their health holding out until they are quite elderly. And jobs being available as the OP pointed out. I do think there should be far more funding available for adult education so that people can retrain as they age.

You can't be obliged to resign at 55. If there is any such expectation, it is likely to be regarded as discriminatory.

My friend at the age of 68 went back to work as a nurse at the local hospital during the pandemic.
She wanted to stay on.. but once it was over she sacked.

You are so right.. we were working in woolen factories or bakery factories.. l myself worked at a catalogue warehouse.. pension schemes were not offered to us at all. Our wages seemed to buy more in the 70s but of course we were living at home paying board.
We were young and carefree and never even thought about becoming old age pensioners.
Some of us are now widowed.. we still have to pay the same heating bills / rent etc as a single pensioner .. with one pension rather than two.

We were young and carefree and never even thought about becoming old age pensioners.

That must have been fun, but surely you can see why that doesn't make it reasonable to lumber younger generations with paying huge state pensions due to people's failure to plan for the obvious fact they would get old and one day not be able to work! While also having to pay enormous housing costs at a much higher multiple lf salaries and save for pensions of their own.

Even if people were unaware of personal pensions they presumably were aware of savings accounts. For some people to have made no provision for their own retirement at all and just rely on the state is rather irresponsible and there is a limit to what younger people can afford to pay particularly given the large demographic bulge.

The state pension system really should have been changed to a funded scheme based on individual contributions decades ago. Not doing so has resulted in a huge drain of over £100bn per year on public resources when funding is desperately needed for other services such as education and health. It's such a mess!

I took voluntary redundancy at 59 and signed on with an agency. A few of the temp jobs I took were classed as manual work - and I enjoyed doing them far more than all my years of working in an office. So much so that could I go back in time I wouldn't ever set foot in an office again. My back also thanked me, sitting at a desk was the worst thing for it. There were people older than me doing the same work and seemingly coping well with it.

I don't think you are 47.

whose taxes do you think paid for all the young people your talking about to be born in hospitals & schooled in education. Taxes don’t pay for the government the government distribute the money we pay to them in taxes to fund such things as children’s education, prisons, hospitals.

Oh please don’t cherry pick someone post to fit it to your agenda.

Exactly. Well said.

I think the retirement age should have been phased in yearly.. not just one big jump.

I'm not in the UK, but that's how they deal with increased superannuation age here. It hasn't changed in years, but occasionally a government will discuss it, and it's always as a gradual change, so those who were due to claim superannuation in the following year or so can still do so, and others would have plenty of advance warning and time to adjust.

@stargazerlil sorry, what do you mean? What agenda?